Sebastian Payne

Ukip attempts a professional manifesto launch in Thurrock

There was one star of Ukip’s manifesto launch today: Suzanne Evans. For once Nigel Farage didn’t steal the show, it was the party’s deputy chairman — and the brains behind its ‘Believe in Britain’ manifesto — who came across as professional and reasoned. Over 100 people turned up at the Thurrock Hotel in Essex to see the release of the manifesto booklet. While it is a slick offering, and full of glossy pictures of its senior figures, it revealed nothing particularly new.

The two main messages in Ukip’s manifesto were already briefed out in the Telegraph and Daily Express this morning: a pledge to increase defence spending beyond the 2 per cent Nato commitment and a pledge to reform taxation to introduce a new 30p tax threshold. The party is clearly trying to show it is the party of the armed forces — an olive branch to Conservative voters — as well as fiscally credible.

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