Steven Woolfe isn’t just dropping out of the Ukip leadership race tonight, he’s quitting the party altogether. He has left with an attack on those who make Ukip ‘ungovernable’; echoing Arron Banks and Nigel Farage’s criticisms of the party’s National Executive Committee. (Though, given that Woolfe ended up in a fight in the European Parliament, he is perhaps not best placed to lecture on behaviour)
Woolfe’s departure—and the circumstances of it—shows how far off becoming a well-run political party Ukip is. As long as it persists with this in-fighting and backbiting, it won’t be able to take advantage of the huge opportunities that Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s London-centric top team present the party with in the North and the Midlands. It is hard to think of a time when Labour has ever been more out of touch with its traditional working class support base in these areas. But it will require discipline and a new message for Ukip to seize this moment. Both are lacking at the moment.
Nominations for the Ukip leadership contest, prompted by Diane James’ resignation after only 18 days in the job, close at the end of this month. Right now, it is not clear who Nigel Farage and Arron Banks will rally round. Farage doesn’t like the former deputy leader Paul Nuttall because of his closeness to Neil Hamilton and Suzanne Evans, the author of the party’s 2015 manifesto, is persona non grata with them because of her support of Vote Leave. So, they will have to find someone else to back or accept the party slipping out of their control.
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