Voting Ukip is a state of mind, according to Nigel Farage. At his first major speech of 2015, and the campaign, in Canvey Island, Essex, Farage set out his stall for the election with the slogan ‘Believe in Britain’ — following on from his article in today’s Telegraph. He hit out at the ‘endlessly negative’ and ‘boring’ campaigns from the other political parties and promised to do things differently — especially now that he believes Labour and the Conservatives live in ‘fear’ of Ukip.
There were few details in the speech of what Ukip’s manifesto will contain, just general themes: Ukip are the only party ‘redefining capitalism’ against the ‘corporatism’ of big government and big business (ignoring the fact that Ed Miliband has already tried something similar). Farage went on to claim that Ukip are becoming the true opposition party across the country ‘from Birmingham to Hadrian’s Wall’ in areas the Tories have long abandoned to Labour.
Ukip’s campaign launch at the Movie Starr in Canvey Island, Essex.
On today’s big news story of Miliband vs Fink, Farage said that he wasn’t too concerned about tax avoidance because most people ‘do it for their children’ and promised to scrap inheritance tax.
Farage did confirm that Ukip wouldn’t enter into a coalition with any party under any circumstances. But he did hint that he’d do some kind of deal with David Cameron if it included a ‘sincere’ EU referendum agreement on the ‘right terms’— i.e. a vote in the very near future. He refused to be drawn into any speculation on how many MPs he hopes to return in May, admitting that he expects a handful of seats but ‘predicting the number of seats we or anyone else will get is a bit like pin the tail on the donkey.’
Unlike past speeches by Farage, it spent far longer extolling the virtues of Britain than attacking the evils of the European Union Although he didn’t utter those famous words of Napoleon, Farage was keen to paint himself as the little guy, standing up for the shopkeepers and small business owners of England.
The launch itself was much better choreographed than previous Ukip events. Free popcorn was handed out in Ukip boxes, the press were kept queuing at the Movie Starr cinema, which was decked out with film-style posters proclaiming that ‘Believe in Britain’ is coming to a ‘sovereign democracy near you’:
Coming to a cinema near you… pic.twitter.com/mCmxTVKIEU
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) February 12, 2015
There was one hiccup: the cinema was far too small for the media pack who journeyed down to the coast. Paul Lambert, Ukip’s Head of Communications, was heard muttering that he didn’t expect so many cameras and hacks to turn up. So everyone had to squash in at the back on top of each other.
For those who couldn’t fit into the cinema, there’s plenty more similar events to come. Deputy leader Paul Nuttall promised that Ukip would deliver a speech on the NHS a week Monday while Farage said the party’s economic strategy would be outlined within the next two weeks. Hold tight, Ukip’s most professional and important campaign to date is underway.
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