Ukip held a campaign rally in a strip club yesterday evening. Well, that’s not entirely fair — it was an ‘entertainment centre’, as party officials were keen to point out, which had a gentlemen’s club on the top floor. The Circus Tavern hosted what was most likely the biggest in Thurrock’s history, featuring Nigel Farage and the party’s candidate for Thurrock Tim Aker. The 29-year-old MEP and local councillor, is fighting a tough three-way battle with the incumbent Tory Jackie Doyle-Price and former BBC journalist Polly Billington for Labour.
It’s one of the top seats Ukip hopes to take from the Conservatives and judging by the positive attitude in Thurrock, the party is confident of its chances. Welcomed to the stage with cheers of ‘oi oi’ from the crowd, it’s clear that Aker revels in being the local boy ‘from Thurrock, for Thurrock’ as he puts it. Around three quarters of the crowd weren’t Ukip members and the party signed up a few dozen new members and £500 in donations after the rally.
Aker managed to whip the crowd into a frenzy but the voters were there for Farage. He delivered chunk after chunk of red meat to the delight of the audience., Farage sympathised with Essex commuters having to endure ‘third world conditions’ at Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street stations. He called for the scrapping of the Barnett Formula and said ‘we’ve had enough of shovelling all that money over Hadrian’s Wall every year’. The crowd gave a huge cheer when asked whether they backed his controversial comments on HIV and health tourism. He cracked that you could find the Labour Party manifesto ‘is already in the fiction section of your local library’ On NHS, Farage said ‘I’m a big fan of NHS nurses, I even married one’.
Ukip were pleased with the turnout, with one party insider pointing out ‘this is the sort of thing that could tip him [Aker] over the edge’ — but the fight is far from over. The incumbent Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price has accused the Labour party of being ‘morally repugnant’ for not standing up to Ukip over immigration. She told the Times (£) that Labour party is ‘too scared to challenge Ukip when they’re blaming the foreigner for everything and too scared to make the positive arguments for immigration.’
The latest marginal polling suggests that Doyle-Pryce’s majority of 92 will disappear. In 2010, the party took seven per cent of the vote but in Lord Ashcroft’s last marginal poll in July last year, Ukip are up to first place with 39 per cent:
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Based on these numbers, it’s Labour that Tim Aker needs to worry about. The selection of Polly Billington, a former BBC journalist and adviser to Ed Miliband, is the best candidate Ukip could ask for. Aker asked the last night ‘are we going to win?’ and the audience hollered back yes. ‘Polly in Islington can’t hear you’, he responded. An even louder roar came back.
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