Ukip

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

After Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of the Ukip party following his defeat in South Thanet, he hastily ‘unresigned’ days later. The move led to a Ukip civil war which saw Patrick O’Flynn rebel against the party leader, leading to both of Farage’s senior aides standing down. Now one of his advisors has had their resignation rejected and their contract renewed. After Mr S revealed last month that Matthew Richardson, the party secretary, was expected to ‘unresign’, the Times’ Red Box reports today that Richardson’s contract has been extended with the party refusing to accept his resignation. A Ukip party spokesman confirms the reappointment to Steerpike: ‘The post of Party secretary is a two year

Ukip continues to talk up a big role for itself in the Out campaign. As Britain’s most Eurosceptic party, it is eager to dive into a referendum it has been waiting almost a quarter of a century for, but the extent of its involvement is not clear.The kippers believe that their ground operation will be vital to the Out campaign — one Ukip source points out that all of Ukip’s 45,000-odd members are gearing up for the fight of their lifetime and it’ll be hard for Conservatives to match this. Therefore, if the Brexit campaign has any hope of success, Ukip would argue it has to play a prominent role. And

Nigel Farage’s latest intervention—declaring that Ukip is ‘going to take the lead making the case for voting to leave the EU in the referendum—neatly sums up the dilemma facing the Out campaign. On the one hand, there’s a danger that if it doesn’t get moving now then the In campaign will have a massive, and possibly insurmountable, advantage by the time the vote is actually called. On the other, if Out is too closely associated with Ukip then it won’t be able to get the 50.1 percent of the vote that it needs to win the referendum. For while Farage might be quite brilliant at motivating the 13 percent who

One of the funnier moments of the election involved Ed Miliband assuming that a turban-wearing Sikh gentleman he met on the campaign trail would, naturally, be helping him get the Sikh vote out for Labour.  In fact, the man was a Conservative parliamentary candidate. It seemed to exemplify the extent to which Labour assumed ethnic minorities would vote for them – but all that is changing. New research from British Future shows that 1 million BME voters helped keep David Cameron in Number 10. This means that one in three minority ethnic voters supported the Tories, which is the party’s best result to date. I was brought up in a pro-Labour

How very tiresome it already is to hear arguments over the European Referendum campaign based not on numbers and facts, but on emotion, intuition, and partisanship. I would have thought that after Dan Hodges’s worst nightmare, politicos would be a bit more cautious about their predictions. Ukip’s former treasurer, Stuart Wheeler, doesn’t seem to have received the memo. I’m not Wheeler-bashing. He has done a great number of things for Ukip and the Eurosceptic movement over his career. But in his piece entitled, ‘Nigel Farage cannot lead the Out campaign‘, he makes a very dangerous intervention — one that is also championed by Ukip’s turbulent priest Douglas Carswell and his puppet

After Nigel Farage resigned as the leader of Ukip following his South Thanet defeat, he appointed Suzanne Evans as the party’s temporary leader. However, this appointment turned out to be fleeting, with Farage ‘unresigning’ days later. Happily, Evans got a chance to relive her glory days when she appeared on BBC’s This Week. The producers appeared to have some fun with her on-air description, billing her as ‘Former Ukip leader, 8th – 11th May 2015’. Given that she recently stepped down as the party’s policy chief following divisions in Ukip over Farage’s ‘unresignation’, Mr S wonders whether Evans might continue to use the BBC’s description for future interviews.

After Nigel Farage resigned as the leader of Ukip following his defeat in South Thanet, he hastily ‘unresigned’ days later. Not everyone was pleased by the quick turnaround, with Ukip MEP Patrick O’Flynn and party donor Stuart Wheeler criticising Farage over his reinstatement. This in-fighting resulted in both of Farage’s personal advisers Raheem Kassam and Matthew Richardson leaving the party. However, while Ukip rebel O’Flynn has since appeared to have his comeuppance this week, standing down as the party’s economics spokesman, times may also be a’changing for Farage’s more loyal supporters. Although Kassam is now back with his former employer Breitbart London, word reaches Mr S that Richardson may go the same way as Farage and ‘unresign’. Steerpike

The aftermath of a general election is a difficult time for any party leader, unless like Mr Cameron you have received a shock majority. I had promised to stand down if I did not win in South Thanet, and confirmed this a few minutes after the result. My huge consolation prize was that Ukip took control of Thanet District Council with a working majority of ten. I am enormously proud of them, and expect them to be a beacon of good governance. However, the level of scrutiny they will be under as the first Ukip-controlled local authority will of course be enormous, as the establishment will be willing them to

Peace appears to have broken out across Ukip, albeit after Nigel Farage has stamped down on those who criticised him. Suzanne Evans is the latest casualty of the Ukip wars, with her job as Head of Policy coming to an end. While Mark Reckless is rumoured to have been offered the role, Evans is stepping aside gracefully: ‘It has been a great privilege to work with UKIP for the past four months to produce the 2015 General Election manifesto. I was delighted with the way it was received, especially by party members and supporters. While my contract for that work comes to an end next week, I remain in my voluntary post

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