Ukip

Unfortunately for Labour, it cannot dismiss Nigel Farage as a ‘pound shop Enoch Powell’ quite so easily as Russell Brand did last night. The party knows that Ukip can take the voters that have already deserted it – voters that it thought still belonged to the party – and there have been increasing calls for the Labour leadership to take Ukip seriously. I understand that MPs have been receiving a series of briefings at the party’s HQ recently examining voters who are vulnerable to Ukip. The briefings, which have been produced by a number of party figures including John Healey, who has long worried about the Ukip threat, include details

The Roger Bird-Natasha Bolter saga continues. Text messages between the Ukip romantics have revealed by the Telegraph which paint Bolter in a less favourable than Bird. While the Ukip investigation is ongoing, Bird has told Guido that they demonstrate a ‘gradual development of the relationship and make it clear that there was no impropriety involved’. That’s as maybe, but is there anything proper about text flirting of this appalling calibre? Here are some more text messages from Botler to Bird: Nov 9, 17.26: “I am really missing u bird…” Nov 6, 19.05: “I have sang you praises to Nigel for 12 minutes” Nov 6, 00.24: “U r not coming back and accordingly my life

To the delight of its enemies, Ukip has just announced its general secretary has been suspended over ‘impropriety allegations’. According to a statement released by the party, claims have come to light ‘about the conduct of Mr [Roger] Bird with regard to candidate selection’. A Ukip spokesman said on Monday evening: ‘Unfortunately, Ukip has had to suspend Mr Bird pending a full investigation into allegations made against him. The party has acted swiftly and decisively and will not tolerate impropriety of any kind amongst its staff.’ Of course, the news will be grist to the mill for those who claim that Ukip is nothing more than a bunch of charlatans, and that it cannot

The latest half-witted United Nations official to stick the boot into the United Kingdom is one Francois Crepeau, UN ‘Special Rapperteur’ (nope, sorry, don’t recognise the term), on the Rights of Human Migrants. Crepeau, who comes from the useless part of Canada, said that British fears about immigration were ‘utter bullshit’. He added that if the British people voted for Ukip it would ‘not be cool’. Mr Crepeau’s intervention made me 30 per cent more likely to vote Ukip next May – and if Farage suggested we leave the UN as well as the EU, make that fifty per cent. Crepeau is the third UN official to have decided recently that of

Ukip’s crisis is the Conservatives’ gain. Following Nigel Farage’s comments about ‘ostentatious’ breastfeeding, Conservative HQ have been promoting this graphic online, with a title noting that Farage is ‘making it up as he goes along’: This kind of graphic is just another example of how the Tories have become more proactive in promoting their point of view on social media over last year, using Twitter as an opportunity to attack others while protecting their position. This Farage one is an example of both: it hits out at Ukip for their perceived flakiness — expect to see much more of this in the coming months — while reminding voters that Ukip also has a

Ukip’s Tim Aker is now juggling three jobs. Last night, the 29-year-old won a by-election in the Aveley & Uplands ward in Thurrock, adding councillor to his existing titles of MEP for the East of England and Ukip’s Head of Policy. Although their vote share dropped, Aker won the by-election with 40 percent of the vote, a strong result that keeps the Ukip momentum going as the year draws to a close. He had a dirty battle with the Tories, who disturbed leaflets referring to him as ‘Timür Aker’, in what appeared to be a reminder of his Turkish roots. As James wrote in the Mail on Sunday last week, this was a

The Autumn Statement was Ukip’s first economic test as a Westminster party, so how did they fare? In their initial response, economic spokesman Patrick O’Flynn lambasted George Osborne for ‘smoke and mirror politics’ over the deficit. ‘The brutal truth is that the Government has comprehensively failed in its central mission to wipe out the deficit’, said O’Flynn. But where would Ukip cut back spending? ‘So huge and unaffordable expenditures are continuing in the areas of foreign aid, alternative energy, an excessive per capita spending settlement for Scotland and of course our massive net EU contribution.’ Ah, international aid. The Sunday Telegraph’s Iain Martin had a tête-à-tête on Twitter with Douglas Carswell about Ukip’s

A lot of focus today will be on how Labour would cut the deficit (and perhaps how George Osborne actually plans to get it done rather than just talking about it, given the Item Club warning that deficit reduction will plateau). Ed Balls has been arguing this morning that Labour would ‘balance the books in a fairer way’ but he’s got to show this afternoon when he responds to the Autumn Statement that Labour really can persuade voters to trust the party again on the economy, especially now that he and Ed Miliband rank behind Farage on this matter. But speaking of Farage, today is the first economic statement in

There is no love lost between UKIP defectors Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless and their old Tory colleagues. Catty Conservative MPs have for some reason nicknamed the Ukip twosome ‘Popeye and Olive Oyl’. Mr S will let you decide which is which.

There is a simple political test for the autumn statement, does it make the economy Topic A again? The Tories’ election strategy relies on the economy being the dominant issue of the campaign. If it is not, it is very hard to see how Cameron and co can win.   The Tories want everything to be seen through the prism of the economy. Hence Osborne’s emphasis this morning that he can only put an extra £2 billion into the NHS because the economy is strong.   In recent months, immigration has supplanted the economy as voters’ top concern. This has been to Ukip—and not the Tories—benefit. This is why Cameron’s