Owen Bennett

He’s gone. Again. Even casual watchers of UK politics will be used to Nigel Farage quitting…and then returning. But this time, he insists it is for real. Except leaving politics does not mean disappearing from public life. 'I now feel I can do just as much to shift public opinion through media and social media as I can as a campaigning party leader,' he said in his announcement that he was quitting heading up the Reform Party.  He’s right. And his opponents will once again play into his hands because they will fall back onto the same patterns of caricature and derision as they have throughout Farage’s career. An announcement from Farage that he is quitting has provoked the usual reactions from the usual suspects.

This year's Ukip conference in Birmingham has only just started but already trouble is breaking out. A row that has been bubbling within the party since it was first founded a generation ago is coming to the surface thanks to a clash between the party’s current leader, Gerard Batten, and its most famous one, Nigel Farage. Farage, no stranger to chucking rocks from the sidelines, has criticised the direction in which Ukip is now travelling. The former Ukip leader warned that the party risks 'utter marginalisation' if it cosies up to the far-right. The catalyst for his comments is Batten's bid to recruit former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.

Is Tommy Robinson a political martyr? Some Ukip supporters think so, and want the former English Defence League leader to be allowed to join their party. A motion set to be debated at Ukip's conference this month could now decide the issue, with the party's ruling body debating this weekend whether it should be up to its members to have the final say on whether Robinson should be welcome in Ukip's ranks. If the ban on Robinson's membership is lifted, then the smallest fig leaf separating the party from the EDL will have finally been removed. Under Ukip's latest leader, Gerard Batten, this seems to be the direction in which the party is travelling.