Why it won’t be Ukip’s fault if Cameron loses

Lord Pearson, Ukip’s former leader, on the deal that might have saved the Tories from coalition

From magazine issue: 18 October 2014

Newly elected United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) MP Douglas Carswell poses for pictures as he arrives at the Houses of Parliament in central London, on October 13, 2014. Britain's anti-EU UK Independence Party won its first seat in the House of Commons Friday October 10, 2014, sending jitters through Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives seven months before what is likely to be a tight general election. (LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images)

issue 18 October 2014

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Malcolm Pearson

Why it won’t be Ukip’s fault if Cameron loses
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[/audioplayer]How odd that David Cameron is still threatening us with ‘Vote Ukip, get Labour’, even after the Heywood and Middleton by-election, which Ukip nearly won with thousands of Labour defections. But if the Conservatives do lose the next election by a Ukip-sized margin then Cameron has only himself to blame — for the second time in a row. I know because I tried to stop it happening in 2010 when I was leading Ukip.

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Colin Freeman

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Soon after Ukip came second in the 2009 EU elections, David Willoughby de Broke and I went to see Tom Strathclyde, then Tory leader in the Lords. We said Ukip would stand aside at the 2010 election if given a binding promise of an EU in/out referendum.

Tom, an old friend, was enthusiastic.