Nigel farage

Once upon a time there was a libertarian champion, who led a self-styled 'People's Army'. He stood up to 'political correctness' and was famed for his outspoken views that often got him into trouble with the 'Establishment' and the 'mainstream media' that he railed against. Yet look how far Nigel Farage has come. Privileged invitees to the Ukip leader's book launch tonight have been warned that 'all conversations are to be considered off the record' at the SW1 event: 'Acceptance of this invite implies agreement of these terms. Information garnered at the event may be used for background, but should be considered non-attributable without further confirmation...

Can Nigel Farage survive as leader of Ukip if he doesn’t become an MP? Although he stood in South Thanet ten years ago — and gained a meagre 5 per cent of the vote — he has much bigger hopes for the impending election. But the dangers are also much higher than ever before. As I wrote in the Spectator recently, if Farage doesn't win South Thanet, his position as Ukip leader would become untenable. He admitted to me it ‘could be a car crash’ if he doesn’t become an MP. Farage has publicly admitted today that South Thanet won’t be an easy fight and there is a huge danger if he doesn’t win.

Why does Nigel Farage keep on doing it? Whether it’s immigrants blocking up the M4, ostentatious breastfeeding or today’s controversy over scrapping race discrimination laws, the Ukip leader has a knack of making statements that outrage the political establishment. Sadiq Khan accused Farage of 'breathtaking ignorance' while Ed Miliband and David Cameron took to Twitter to express their disagreement with Farage. .@David_Cameron The people the law doesn't protect are British workers, black or white. Disturbing, though unsurprising, that u don't care. — Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) March 12, 2015 Farage's statement is not the usual fare we've come to expect from political leaders, at least to the metropolitan mindset.

MPs are voting today in favour of the introduction of standardised cigarette packaging. There hasn't even been a debate on the issue and the BBC thinks the result is a foregone conclusion. That's bad news for the tobacco industry, hardline libertarians and Nigel Farage. It's been amusing watching the Tobacco Manufacturer's Association carve out its nuanced – almost schizophrenic – position on the matter. Smoking is bad for our health and it is impossible to argue otherwise. So they don’t. Theirs must be the only industry which is resigned, ostensibly at least, to deterring potential customers. Big tobacco firms have an obligation to their shareholders, so they have to say something in their own defence.

Oh dear, Mr S has some bad news for Nigel Farage. The Ukip leader's South Thanet rival Al Murray has had his application to make the Freedom United Kingdom Party an officially registered political party approved. This means that he can now run for the coveted seat in May. The Electoral Commission has given the application the green light despite reservations from Ukip supporters that FUKP is too similar to Ukip so could muddle voters. A spokesman for the commission confirms the news:  'I can confirm that Al Murray’s party has had the name Free United Kingdom Party approved by the Electoral Commission. We have informed the party of our decision.

Ukip is fighting its most important and difficult election campaign to date. If the party is victorious in May, there is a chance it will become an established Westminster force — around for many years to come. But if Ukip fails, its chance to crack the Commons will have passed and the party’s peak will be judged as being the Rochester & Strood and Clacton by-elections last year. In the magazine this week, I go behind the scenes with Ukip to find out how the election campaign is going, and what victory looks like for the party. Here are five things I learnt from my time with the People's Army in London, Essex and Kent.

It was a bit rich of George Osborne to tease Nigel Farage for ‘a novel approach to policymaking’ for dumping Ukip’s previous commitment to a 50,000 cap on the number of migrants arriving in the UK each year live on the Today programme. George Osborne found this rather funny, even though he and his colleagues have spent the past year doing something reasonably similar. It was on the same programme that Theresa May downgraded the net migration target to a ‘comment’, while Osborne gave newspaper interviews in which he made it clear that it would be rather difficult to meet the target under Britain’s current arrangements with the EU.

The Ukip spring conference was somewhat overshadowed by a publicity stunt from a local theatre group in Margate, which saw dancers dressed as Nazis high-kick their way through Springtime for Hitler to publicise their production of The Producers. Unsurprisingly, Nigel Farage's party were none too thrilled by the manoeuvre given the racism allegations that continue to haunt the party. Roger Helmer, the Ukip MEP, has tried to come to his party's aid in a blog post on his personal website. 'UKIP’s Party Conference in Margate on February 28th was gate-crashed by a group of dancers wearing Nazi Swastikas, and accompanied by a tank. They came from Mel Brooks’ Musical Show “The Producers”.

Was Nigel Farage ‘absent on the job’ this week, addressing a conference in America instead of focusing on the immigration figures and Ukip’s spring conference? He defended the trip on the Sunday Politics today, arguing that he recorded plenty of radio and TV interviews from Washington. ‘I did quite honestly as much media from Washington as I would have done had I been in Westminster,’ he said. When pushed again by Andrew Neil on whether he'd have better served Ukip by staying at home, Farage responded ‘with all due respect, I can’t see the difference’ between doing the interviews in Washington and Westminster.

Today has been ‘Nigel Farage Day’ in Margate. Although many of the party’s other prominent characters addressed its spring conference, it was the leader who entirely stole the day with a speech lapped up by the crowd. If there was ever any doubt that Ukip is built around the personality of Farage, today proved it. I spoke two of Ukip’s other key figures to gauge their thoughts on the conference.