Rotherham is only a few miles down the road from the Ukip conference, and looms large in the hall. Every speaker so far has managed to mention the scandal of 1,400 children abused and ignored by the authorities. Jane Collins’ speech has riled Labour so much that Labour has accused her of being defamatory, while Nigel Farage devoted a furious section of his speech to accusing the party. He said the child abuse was a ‘direct result’ of Labour’s policies and commitment to political correctness:
‘What we have seen in Rotherham in particular – but there have been other examples of it too – what we have seen within the one-party state as a direct result of their national policies and as a direct result of their own political correctness at a local level is child abuse that has taken place on a scale that I think is actually quite difficult for decent people to comprehend. I think it is just about one of the most shocking things I have seen in my lifetime in this country.’
In response to those who have accused him of using this case as a political football, Farage argued that if this wasn’t politics, he didn’t know what was. It is clearly part of a strategy to frame Labour as a party that failed its own voters at every level, from immigration policy to safeguarding children. Ukip plans to make Rotherham a key fight, with the by-election for police and crime commissioner coming up on 30 October. But it is a high-stakes strategy to make this such a heart of its conference, as political footballs don’t go down well with voters who suspect they won’t be given real answers and change.
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