Nigel farage

Nigel Farage and Ukip are convinced they can win the EU referendum by focusing on immigration as the key issue. But other Eurosceptics have been concerned that the kippers will alienate the public — and non-Ukip sympathisers in particular — with their tough rhetoric on this topic and the ‘In’ side will triumph. British Future, a think tank which studies the effects of migration, has commissioned a set of polls which confirms this risk exists. According to the polling conducted by Survation, 58 per cent agree that ‘Ukip risk bringing prejudice into debates on immigration’ — something 44 per cent of those described as ‘leaning Out’ agree with, as well as 74 per cent

Ukip’s selection procedure for its London Assembly and Mayoral candidates is ‘undemocratic’, the party’s own MEP for London has told Coffee House. Gerard Batten has refused to take part in the selection procedure because it is ‘undemocratic’, with the party’s London membership getting no vote on the candidates. He said: ‘If Ukip is a democratic party, then it should allow the London members to select the candidate. Ukip is nothing if not a grassroots party. Activists who are not allowed to vote for a candidate may not feel motivated to campaign for that candidate. Ukip talks a lot about the undemocratic nature of the European Union, so we should practise democracy in

Nigel Farage is trying to block Suzanne Evans from becoming Ukip candidate for Mayor of London with a covert campaign to install a less threatening, loyal party colleague in her place, sources have told Coffee House. Ukip will select its mayoral candidate this weekend. Evans is the bookies’ favourite and the best-known outside the party. But it has moved from a one member one vote system within the London party for picking its choice for the mayoral elections to a private selection. The six-strong panel for the selection includes a number of Farage loyalists, including Chris Bruni-Lowe, Paul Oakden and Mick McGough. Party insiders are furious that this panel seems to

In an interview with Sky News Australia, David Cameron’s former election strategist Lynton Crosby has today offered his thoughts on the Prime Minister’s rivals. Unsurprisingly, his conclusions are hardly flattering. However, the man who has taken the brunt of Crosby’s ire is Nigel Farage. Crosby claims that Ukip does not have ‘a long-term future’. Furthermore, instead of trying to win a Westminster seat again, Farage would be better advised to look for chat show work in Australia: ‘They are very reliant on the performance of their leader Nigel Farage and even he couldn’t win a seat. Sixth or seventh time he’s tried to win a Westminster seat. I think he might be

Ukip has been especially quiet over the last few months. Following the party’s disappointing result in the general election, Nigel Farage’s ‘unresignation’ and the briefing wars, the party has purposefully kept its head down. With Farage’s return to the spotlight last week, Kippers are gearing up for the fight of their lifetime. This is what has been going on inside Ukip in recent weeks and what you can expect to see from the so-called ‘people’s army’ over the next few months. Give peace a chance Since the internal turmoil and the ‘break’ Farage was urged to take by his colleagues, much of the party’s tensions have calmed down. Some attribute this to the pressure cooker atmosphere

Nigel Farage emerged from his summer break today to kickstart his party’s No campaign. The Ukip leader hit out at Eurosceptic Conservatives who he believes are lazy and ‘there is no No campaign’ at present. But he won’t be putting himself forward as a candidate to lead the official No campaign —  instead focusing on his grassroots efforts with a tour of the country in September. I caught up with Farage, who appeared refreshed after ‘trying to keep away from people like you’. He denied that by attacking Tories, he is beginning Ukip’s No campaign on a negative footing: ‘You will have seen in national newspaper columns this week a

Although Ukip is said to have a ‘women problem’ thanks to low ratings from females in comparison to other parties, their leader does at least seem keen to reach out to the fairer sex. Nigel Farage reportedly gave a woman cause for concern today after she discovered him in the female toilet of a restaurant: https://twitter.com/tanyamTV/status/626380119540674560 While Farage was criticised by the woman for leaving the tap running, Mr S is just glad that he opted to wash his hands. A Ukip spokesman declines to comment on the incident.

The row in Ukip over parliamentary Short money has finally been resolved. Guido reports that Douglas Carswell, the party’s sole MP, has been advertising for a £60k per annum speechwriter, funded out of public money. This is the first indication that Ukip is setting itself up as a proper Westminster party through use of Short money. To recap, the disagreement began after the general election, when a divide opened up between Carswell and Ukip HQ over whether to use some or all of the money allotted to it as an opposition party — known as Short money. Some kippers were keen take all of the available £670k, while Carswell was pushing for a more restrained

With taxpayers currently facing the prospect of a £3 billion bill in order to stop Parliament turning into a ‘ruin’, perhaps it’s time the Speaker took a note out of Baroness Benjamin’s book in order to reduce the cost to the taxpayer. During a Walking with the Wounded charity cricket match at the weekend, Floella Benjamin managed to tempt a bidder to pay £800 for a tour of the crumbling building. ‘You realise that the Houses of Parliament soon will not be occupied by either the Lords or the MPs, so this is actually a chance to see something before it is restored,’ she told an audience which included Nick Compton and Lady Kitty Spencer. The Lib

Those Kippers just can’t decide whether to stay or go. Suzanne Evans, Ukip’s deputy chairman, was yesterday banned from representing the party, according to a leaked internal email. Evans upset some in the party after telling the Daily Politics that Farage can be perceived as ‘divisive figure.’ But the party has just released a statement to the contrary: ‘Suzanne Evans has not been sacked as a UKIP spokesman. The email seen by the BBC was issued without proper authority.’ What’s going on here? At present, Ukip is full of murmurings of plots and backstabbing, which have manifested themselves in this latest episode. Despite losing her job as Head of Policy, Evans is still perceived by

We can all agree that the 2015 General Election was not the pollsters’ finest moment. While final polls from ComRes and one other firm put all the parties within the margin of error, we all consistently overestimated Labour and underestimated the Conservatives. Yet despite this Election, political polling in the UK has a strong record – certainly a lot better than, say, government economic forecasts. The industry has reacted to the election by openly addressing its failings and working hard to correct them. As well as the independent review, most polling firms are conducting their own internal reviews. The freedom to do so is fundamental to the success of the

Matt Richardson has returned to his role as Ukip’s general secretary today. The party told the BBC in a statement, ‘Matt has resumed the role… by law any constituted political party must have a party secretary who is a qualified lawyer.’ This might not seem like big news — Steerpike reported that Richardson would be returning last week — but it does show that Nigel Farage’s authority has been restored within the party. During the Ukip briefing wars following the general election, several senior Ukip figures left their jobs or were sacked: comms chief Paul Lambert, senior advisor Raheem Kassam, economics spokesman Patrick O’Flynn and head of policy Suzanne Evans. Although

Will the country be torn apart by the EU referendum? That’s the argument made by Chris Deerin on the capitalist running dog website CapX. Deerin, a Scottish Unionist, says it’s now Great Britain’s turn to go through the same painful and divisive process that Scotland endured last year. Personally I doubt that will happen, although it’s possible that a slender vote in favour of remaining in the EU may in the long term be divisive. The main problem with the analogy is that there is just no Ukip equivalent of the aggressive Scottish nationalists who shouted at Jim Murphy. There is a Kipper version of the Cybernats, but even online

Raheem Kassam has blown open the doors on the mad world of Ukip in an interview with The Guardian’s Rowena Mason. A former aide to Nigel Farage, Kassam was the Ukip leader’s righthand man during the election campaign and still remains very close to the leader. But during the briefing wars following Farage’s ‘unresignation’, Kassam became a lightening rod for criticism and eventually left the party. The interview offers his honest take on what’s been going on in Ukip and where the party needs to change. But some Kippers are disputing his characterisation of recent events. The first point of contention is over whether there was a plot to oust Farage as leader. As the Guardian article says: Kassam claims that even