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. On last night’s Question Time, the Ukip leader — who put in a solid, if not particularly inspiring performance — took the radical step of promising not to take any public funds, which includes the Short money:
‘I’m going to recommend that we don’t accept any of it. Given we’ve had an argument over this, I don’t want Ukip to look like other parties, grubbing around after public money’
Carswell has been consistent in calling for a reduction in the state funding of political parties and believes Short money should be lowered — hence his preference for taking a reduced figure of £350,000 at a meeting with Ukip HQ staffers last week.
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