Ukip’s announcement this afternoon that it will be backing Grassroots Out in its bid for designation as the official ‘Leave’ campaign in the EU referendum has caused consternation in its ranks. The party put out a press release saying that the National Executive Committee, MEPs and its Local Councillors Association are backing GO, which was set up by Peter Bone and is supported by Leave.EU.
But I understand that there was no formal NEC meeting about this, and that the last meeting that discussed the designation was a few months ago. When I asked the party how the NEC was consulted, I was told that there was a telephone discussion about the matter this morning. Some were contacted by text message. Party figures are unhappy, claiming that this is a ‘stitch-up’ aimed at bouncing the party into supporting the designation when two thirds of its councillors support rival campaign Vote Leave.
There is also the glaring problem of the Ukip parliamentary party, which is not mentioned at all in the press release.
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