For the Tories, it’s Europe. For Labour, it’s Blairites against Brownites. The Lib Dems, devoid of principle, go in for limp-wristed back-stabbing. Now Ukip, in a sign of its growing political maturity, has become distracted by cynical, and at times thoroughly unpleasant, infighting as those close to Nigel Farage seek to maintain his leadership cult.
Party members do not even have to question their leader’s authority; merely being liked or achieving low level success breeds suspicion. Diane James, the Ukip candidate who came from nowhere to do so well in the Eastleigh by-election, has been on the receiving end of negative briefings in recent weeks. Meanwhile, an entire group of Ukip officials resigned from the party in protest at the treatment of their MEP Mike Nattrass, an outspoken critic of Nigel Farage who was deselected by the party hierarchy.
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