Nigel farage

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

Is Mark Reckless set to become Ukip’s Head of Policy?

Mark Reckless has been rather quiet during the recent Ukip wars. After losing Rochester & Strood to the Conservatives, it has been expected he would return to the party in some role or another. Now, it is rumoured that he will become the party's new Head of Policy - replacing Suzanne Evans, who wrote the 2015 manifesto. Given that he temporarily gave the party its second seat, it would be cruel not to give Reckless something after a defeat many in the party expected. I understand that Reckless was offered the job during the contentious NEC meeting last week, where Nigel Farage unresigned as leader. It's unknown whether he will accept the job, telling Guido 'I don’t want to comment on my future plans. Nothing has been agreed.

Sebastian Payne

Patrick O’Flynn issues humiliating apology and resigns as economics spokesman

Patrick O’Flynn has apologised for starting last week’s Ukip wars. I understand that O’Flynn met with Farage in Strasbourg this morning — the first time the pair had sat down since his comments in the Times last week. In a slightly bizarre turn of events, the party has released the following statement from O'Flynn: ‘I would like to express to colleagues my sincere regret at going public with my frustrations about the turn of events following polling day. And more than that, I would like to apologise directly to Nigel for the phrase 'snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive'. This was a fragment of a wider passage about perceptions and is not what I think of him.

Monday

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Friends reunited

What a difference a day makes. Only yesterday it seemed that the Ukip civil war was still rattling on, with Nigel Farage's former senior advisor Raheem Kassam writing a feisty article for the Telegraph criticising Douglas Carswell, who had in turn criticised Farage. Happily relations between Carswell and Farage seem amiable for now. They were joined by rumoured Ukip leadership hopeful Suzanne Evans for a selfie outside Number 10. https://twitter.com/DouglasCarswell/status/600250080734621698 The trio met with members of the Green party and Plaid Cymru as they called for David Cameron to organise fairer voting system than first past the post. https://twitter.

Sunday

Sebastian Payne

Ukip’s Suzanne Evans: ‘nobody wants Nigel to leave’

Ukip's internal warfare continues today with interventions from both sides. Suzanne Evans, the party's deputy chairman, appeared on the Andrew Marr Show this morning to play down the tensions. She told Andrew Marr that the situation has been overegged: 'I don't think anyone hates anyone, I genuinely don't. I think we've had some problems with some advisers around Nigel who very much kept him in their pocket if you like and he's had too much influence from them. But they've gone.' She singled out Raheem Kassam, Farage's ex-senior advisor, who she happily noted has left the party and returned to work for Breitbart, a 'far right, Tea Party, American style shock-and-awe publication' where she thinks 'he'll be right at home'.

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Douglas Carswell breaks cover and says Farage ‘needs to take a break now’

Nigel Farage said today his critics need to put up or shut up and Douglas Carswell has chosen the former. Confirming that he is the ‘senior figure’ Farage mentioned earlier, the Clacton MP has written an op-ed in the Times tomorrow calling for a change in direction. He says that ‘Ukip has arrived — and Ukip is here to stay’ but calls for Farage to step aside as leader, temporarily or permanently: ‘On Monday, Ukip’s national executive committee made a decision to reinstate Nigel as party leader. Yet even leaders need to take a break. Nigel needs to take a break now.’ But in classic Carswell style, he denies that he wants to lead the party himself.

Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Nigel Farage ‘never resigned’ from Ukip in ‘stitch up’

It has been alleged that Nigel Farage never formally resigned from Ukip as part of what party sources have told the Spectator was a stitch up to avoid a leadership contest. It is claimed that the Ukip leader never wrote a letter to the party’s chairman tendering his resignation. He told the media on Friday that he would write to the party resigning. When it met on Monday, it is said the National Executive Committee had still not received a letter. A source tells me that when someone asked where the letter was, they were told ‘it is being typed out as we speak’. The source says the letter never appeared.

Sebastian Payne

Paul Lambert out as Ukip’s head of communications

The Ukip wars have taken another casualty: the party’s head of communications Paul 'Gobby' Lambert. Guido reports that the 'press office has declared war on the leader' and it appears Lambert is a casualty of the fighting. Lambert was brought in from the BBC last year to run the party's media operation but there have been concerns from those around Farage about his performance in the role. Others in the party suggest he wanted to leave anyway after a long and exhausting campaign. From my understanding, Lambert decided he'd had enough and had no desire to renew his contract after the election. As with Raheem Kassam yesterday, it's not entirely clear if he has been sacked or not.

The Spectator

Podcast special: can Nigel Farage survive the Ukip wars?

In this View from 22 special podcast, Fraser Nelson and Sebastian Payne discuss the ongoing Ukip wars with Laura Pitel from The Times. Can Nigel Farage survive as leader? Is there still a conflict between Team Farage and other tribes within the party? And what role has Douglas Carswell played, if any, in the briefing wars?

Lloyd Evans

Will anything go right for Nigel Farage?

Anxious viewers tuned into Question Time last night to watch live coverage of the ongoing Nigel Farage crisis. Quite a week for the Ukip leader. Up and down. In and out. And back in again. His pitch for a Westminster power-base imploded on election day. And he promptly quit, as promised. But his resignation fared no better than his parliamentary campaign. His withdrawal was rejected. Won’t anything go right for him? He explained to a glum audience in Uxbridge that after losing South Thanet he retreated to ‘a darkened room’ to examine his future. ‘I was going to walk out of there a free man but they dragged me back!’ This jaunty account received not a bat’s squeak of laughter from the crowd.

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage tells mystery ‘senior figure’ to put up or shut up

Nigel Farage’s fight back has continued with an interview on Sky News this morning. Following on from his appearance on Question Time, the Ukip leader described an ‘astonishing’ level of support for him within the party. But he admitted that there is someone high up within the party trying to cause trouble or oust him as leader: 'I mean, I've never had support like it. There is one senior figure in UKIP briefing every single day, consistently, and he's now moved on to “there must be a leadership election”. 'That individual must make his mind up whether his future is with UKIP or not. What is clear is that the sheer level of support for me within UKIP ... frankly, it's astonishing.

Sebastian Payne

Have Nigel Farage and Douglas Carswell reached détente over Ukip’s Short money?

The row over what to do with its Short money was the tinderbox for Ukip’s internal tensions. Although the war between Team Farage and Team O’Flynn has been bubbling away for months, the question of what to do with the £650,000 of public funds, combined with Nigel Farage’s un-resignation, kicked off a briefing war that brought these fights into the public domain. But we may have détente between Douglas Carswell and Nigel Farage on state funding.

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 14 May 2015

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, soon got used to the surprise of the Conservatives being returned in the general election with a majority of 12. He retained George Osborne as Chancellor of the Exchequer and made him First Secretary of State too. Theresa May, Philip Hammond, Michael Fallon and Iain Duncan Smith also stayed put, but Chris Grayling replaced William Hague, who had left the Commons, as Leader of the House, to be replaced as justice secretary by Michael Gove, who was replaced as chief whip by Mark Harper. Amber Rudd became Energy Secretary. John Whittingdale became Culture Secretary in place of Sajid Javid, who became Business Secretary. Boris Johnson was to attend weekly political cabinets.

The Spectator

Cameron’s new mission

As David Cameron lined up beside Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband at the Cenotaph on the day after the general election, he said that he had thought he would be the one writing a resignation statement that day. He may also have imagined how history would have judged him: as a so-so Tory leader who didn’t quite manage to win an election against the reviled Gordon Brown and was booted out after one term. A leader who was good at balancing a coalition but who didn’t stand for (or achieve) very much himself. It would have been a miserable legacy. Luckily he now has the chance to reshape it. The political landscape he surveys has changed utterly. Of all the political parties, only the Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists are intact. The Labour party is settling down for a long civil war.

Sebastian Payne

The ‘save Nigel Farage’ operation is underway, but is it too late?

It is touch and go whether Nigel Farage can survive as Ukip leader. With key figures such as former leader Roger Knapman, donor Stuart Wheeler and treasurer Hugh Williams saying it's time for a change, the operation to 'save' Farage has begun in haste. Ukip’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall, who is seen as Farage’s anointed successor, has released an ambiguous statement of support, which doesn’t mention Farage by name, nor explicitly endorse him as leader: ‘The general election was a great success delivering 4 millions votes in the bag. The 2020 vision is on course. UKIP have the best communicator in British politics leading this party and who will play a vital role during the referendum campaign.

Ed West

Nigel Farage isn’t the biggest threat to the Eurosceptic cause. Vladimir Putin is

I keep on reading that the ‘Outers’ are going to lose the upcoming EU referendum because Euroscepticism has become associated with Ukip, and Nigel Farage is too divisive. It has been talked about for some time but I’ve seen it far more since the party won 13 per cent of the vote last week. The paradox is that, as Ukip’s support has risen since 2011, conversely British support for EU membership has actually increased. It’s possible, of course, that the public has come to associate Euroscepticism with Ukip whereas it once associated it with the Tory Right, although how much less toxic that brand is must be open to debate.

Sebastian Payne

Raheem Kassam un-sacked as Nigel Farage’s senior adviser

Raheem Kassam, senior adviser to Nigel Farage, has not been 'sacked' from Ukip after all. It was reported earlier this afternoon that he had left the party today — as Patrick O'Flynn appeared to be asking for. But the party is being careful with its language. The party's press office are simply saying: 'Raheem Kassam is no longer working for Ukip' This is technically correct: he is not 'working' for Ukip as he is currently on holiday in New York. Kassam has released his own statement, pointing out that he was only employed for the election campaign and his contract was due to finish at the end of the month: 'I was GE2015 staff. My contract has always expired at the end of the month and I am on holiday until then.

Sebastian Payne

Does Patrick O’Flynn actually want a new leader for Ukip?

Patrick O’Flynn has surfaced to explain his remarks about Nigel Farage and the team around him. On Sky News, O’Flynn denied he was gunning for Farage's position, describing him as ‘my political hero’, but blamed a ‘couple of people in his inner circle’ who he said are ‘wrong ‘uns’: ‘The advisers he’s got around him have got an awful lot to account for… some people around him who would like to take Ukip in the direction of some hard right ultra-aggressive American Tea Party-type movement.

Sebastian Payne

Exclusive: Team Farage suggests O’Flynn has had ‘personal problems’

The briefing war inside Ukip continues with the Nigel Farage camp hitting back at Patrick O’Flynn, after his remarks in the Times today. The battle is between two sides: those who are close to and work for Nigel Farage, and others in the party who are concerned about who the Ukip leader is listening to. Team Farage believe the battle is about power and influence with the leader. But the attacks are getting personal: one source close to the Ukip leader suggests that O’Flynn has had ‘personal problems and this may be the manifestation of them’. Although Team Farage failed to deliver a victory in South Thanet, those who worked on his campaign are keen to point out that the party won four million votes under his leadership.

Sebastian Payne

Ukip wars, part 389: Patrick O’Flynn declares war on Nigel Farage

Ukip is doing a very good job of convincing voters it is not a serious party. After days of shadowboxing over the use of Short money to fund the party in Westminster, its economic spokesman Patrick O”Flynn has broken cover to attack Nigel Farage — and he certainly isn't holding back. In today’s Times, O’Flynn says the Ukip leader has become ‘snarling, thin-skinned, aggressive’, instead of a ‘cheerful, ebullient, cheeky, daring’ politician.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Could this be the row that sees Douglas Carswell leave Ukip?

Ukip is embroiled in an almighty row about money. It suddenly has too much of it, apparently. Guido reports that Douglas Carswell is refusing to take the full £650,000 of Short money that his party is entitled to for running a parliamentary operation that represents the four million votes the party won in the election. Ukip HQ are insisting he should have it, while Carswell is insisting they only take £350,000. HQ sources have been handing out some pretty heavy briefings about Carswell refusing to represent the party’s four million voters.