Ukip’s tough talk on terror comes with a big risk

Ukip’s success in pursuing the Tories over Brexit will be remembered for a long time. Now, the party thinks it has a new bone of contention with which to go after the government: keeping Britain safe.

In the wake of Monday’s night’s attack, Ukip wants to paint itself as the only party serious about rooting out Islamic fundamentalism and tackling terrorism. As if to make that point, while the Tory and Labour national campaigns remained suspended this morning, Ukip pressed ahead with its manifesto launch today. Nuttall came under pressure at the event over this decision, and was asked repeatedly whether he was trying to capitalise on the attack by focusing so squarely on the terror threat. The party’s leader insisted that wasn’t the case – pointing out that the manifesto had already been printed on Saturday, before the attack. But those questions from journalists did not go down well with Ukip members attending the event: the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg was told to ‘crawl back down your hole’.