There have been one or two calls to brand Ukip a racist party, and some media debate about whether it is. But what’s become clear during the last fortnight is that there is a strong, cross-party consensus both that Ukip isn’t a ‘racist party’ – and that it must get better at keeping out individuals that hold racist views.
On debates such as the BBC’s Question Time, you can clearly see that this consensus has extended across the front and backbenches of the different parties. Just one or two MPs take a different view. Labour left-winger Diane Abbott told the BBC that she did not regard Ukip as racist but saw it as having US ‘tea party’ tendencies.
There are good reasons why the general public, the media and his political rivals treat Nigel Farage differently to Nick Griffin. Ukip does not have extremist roots. It was founded to get Britain out of Europe, a legitimate cause.
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