Ukip

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Ukip’s attempt to sabotage the end of the Tory conference has backfired

When press officers from Ukip enticed journalists along to a press conference at the end of the summer by promising that it would definitely be worth their while, they showed they weren’t exaggerating. That press conference was where Douglas Carswell defected. So today when Ukip told hacks that it would definitely be worth their while travelling from the final day of the Tory conference to a Gloucestershire country home for a 5pm press conference, everyone assumed there would be another defection. 5pm came, and up popped Nigel Farage and Arron Banks, a Tory donor who defected to Ukip earlier this week. Banks was increasing his donation to the party from

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why are the Tory party in such a good mood?

Two things have been puzzling Tory high-ups in Birmingham this week: does Nigel Farage have another defector in his back pocket, and why is the Tory party in such a good mood? Many expected that a second MP defecting to Ukip would have plunged the party into the slough of despond. One influential Tory, though, has an explanation for what’s going on. ‘The mood here is so upbeat because people think we’ve got Labour beat.’ He is, however, quick to add, ‘It is Ukip that is the problem.’ This is the paradox of British politics at the moment: it is easier to explain why either main party shouldn’t win the

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Leaked lines to take for Tory MPs show party nerves about Ukip

Tory conference has been much more upbeat than last week’s gloomy offer from Labour. But just in case the party had turned up in a bad mood after the defection of Mark Reckless, MPs were given a series of lines to take which involved them telling any broadcaster unfortunate to ask that the gathering in Birmingham was demonstrating ‘energy’ and ‘positivity’. Those lines to take, leaked to Coffee House, show the party preparing for a week of awkward questions about Ukip taking their voters and overshadowing their conference. One of the questions is ‘have Mark Reckless and Ukip overshadowed your conference?’ The answer is: ‘I disagree. The country – and the

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Is London’s Richard Barnes the final Ukip defector?

The gossip here in Birmingham is that there is a third defector from the Tories to Ukip, that David Cameron knows his name and isn’t too bothered. But if that person is Richard Barnes, a former deputy Mayor of London who has announced his defection today, you can see why the PM is quite chillaxed about it. He’s someone with no national profile who was expelled from the Party earlier for this year for standing as an Independent against the Conservative Party’s approved candidate. He is also defecting in part of the country where Ukip support is at its lowest. Barnes has recited the now-familiar list of reasons for defecting to the Evening Standard. The former London Assembly member

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Chris Kelly distressed by Ukip rumours and has denied them to closest family

Like all MPs suspected as potential Ukip defectors, Chris Kelly is being hounded by colleagues, whips and journalists all desperate to find out what he’s up to. He and his family are distressed by the pressure that the MP is under and suspect that Ukip are putting his name about to create a smoke screen around the next defector. Kelly has told his long-term girlfriend that he is not defecting. His girlfriend’s mother is Nadine Dorries, who says Kelly is so loyal to the government that she’s quite ‘disappointed’ he doesn’t take more principled stands against it. But she is confident he will not defect. Neither, in case you’re wondering,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Turncoats, ‘dickheads’ – what the Tories think of Ukip

The Tories are bracing themselves for another defection to Ukip which may or may not come today or in the next few days. MPs and whips have been chasing after Adam Holloway and Chris Kelly as the figures who seem the most at risk, and have been extracting the sort of point blank denials that Mark Reckless claims to have never been asked for. Daniel Hannan has been denying again that he is leaving his party, while another rumour is doing the rounds that the next defection could be from a London Conservative working with Boris, rather than the Commons or the European Parliament. MPs are angry and determined to

Steerpike Steerpike

Dan Hannan boycotts Tory conference (but promises he won’t defect to Ukip)

No Mark Reckless, no Brooks Newmark and now no Bow Group.  The oldest conservative think-thank has announced that they are boycotting this year’s Tory conference. It seems, for Dave at least, bad news really does come in threes. The venerable think tank, founded in 1951 and counting Lords Howe and Heseltine among its members, has charged the Conservative Party Conference with being ‘a corporate venue for press and lobbyists’ rather than ‘a genuine forum for conservatism and Conservative Party members’. With MEP and Bow Group member Dan Hannan refusing to attend and Lord Tebbit worrying that CPC was no longer ‘anything to do with Party members’, the Tories might have reason to

Steerpike Steerpike

Angry Dave’s jibe at ‘fat arse’ Reckless

While last week’s Labour conference felt like a wake, the mood is a little better here in Birmingham for Tory party conference. There is a certain amount of gallows humour in the bars, with regard to both the resignation of Brooks Newmark, and – more significantly to Tory fortunes – the latest defection to UKIP. From the very top down, the word Reckless is a dirty one. The Prime Minister toured the regional receptions getting steadily more pumped up in his anger about Reckless’s duplicity. Rumour is rife the words ‘effing Reckless’, ‘fat arse’ and ‘dick head’ were blurted out in various versions of a tub-thumping turn by Cameron. The Tories are

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

White Dee: I might back Ukip instead of Labour

Back in February, Benefits Street star ‘White Dee’ promised to give David Cameron a ‘run for his money’. In her Spectator diary, she described how ‘Ladbrokes has made me 50-1 to be the next MP for Birmingham Ladywood, and until I read that patronising nonsense I wasn’t going to stand. Now, I think I will. As an independent, mind. How far will I get? Let’s just see.’ Dee hadn’t yet made it clear which party she was thinking of joining. She’s speaking at the Tory conference today, although she has been a strident critic of their policies. Previously, she has indicated that she used to vote LibDem, until they joined forces with

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Mark Reckless: The away day row that made me lose my faith in David Cameron

What made Mark Reckless decide to defect? Coffee House earlier revealed the timeline that led to the Tory MP standing on the conference stage in Doncaster today, but after his announcement, he sat down with a small group of journalists and explained why he’d decided that Ukip was the right party for him. It started with a row in Oxfordshire. Before explaining, Reckless first refused a glass of wine, and when it was pointed out that sipping water was a little unusual for a Ukipper, he told the group that ‘I’m not a big drinker’, adding sheepishly ‘I had an unfortunate incident some time ago as some of you will

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

How The Spectator stopped Mark Reckless from reaching parliament in 2005

When Mark Reckless stands for election as a UKIP candidate for Rochester and Strood, The Spectator will be against him. But we were against him when he stood as a Tory in 2005. Indeed, in that general election The Spectator backed the Conservatives (as you’d expect) but made a specific exception for Reckless, running for what was then Medway. Peter Oborne, then political editor, went so far as to draft a campaign statement for Bob Marshall-Andrews, the Labour MP whom Reckless was trying to depose. Marshall-Andrews, Oborne argued, was the true Conservative candidate. Peter Oborne’s leaflet was distributed very widely during the campaign and Reckless was defeated by a fairly narrow margin (213 votes). So we’re bold enough to think

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tories ready for tough by-election fight

When Douglas Carswell defected, many Tory MPs were quick to say that an aggressive campaign against him would be counter-productive. There is none of that talk today. listen to ‘Podcast special: Mark Reckless defects to Ukip’ on audioBoom Listening to Tories this afternoon one is struck by how so many of them view the Reckless defection as different to the Carswell one. They point out Carswell didn’t regularly deny that he was going to defect in the way that Reckless did. Reckless’s timing is also far more clearly designed to hurt the Tory party than Carswell’s was. Judging by the conversations I’ve had this afternoon, the whips won’t find it

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: Mark Reckless defects to Ukip

Mark Reckless dropped a bomb on the Ukip conference in Doncaster today, announcing his surprise defection from the Tories. In this View from 22 special, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss why Reckless switched sides, how Ukip managed to keep the news secret, what it means for the upcoming Conservative Party conference and whether we can expect to see any more defections before May 2015. listen to ‘Podcast special: Mark Reckless defects to Ukip’ on audioBoom

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How Mark Reckless’ defection happened – exclusive details

Mark Reckless has been talking about moving to Ukip for months, those who know him say. It was only in the last two weeks that he decided he was definitely defecting, and only in the past few days that more people working for the party knew what was happening. Still, they managed to keep it under wraps to the extent that some journalists had gone home early, dismissing the reports of defections as overexcited chatter. The hall was gobsmacked when he appeared. listen to ‘Podcast special: Mark Reckless defects to Ukip’ on audioBoom

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Mark Reckless’s stunning defection to Ukip is further proof of the great Tory split

The defection of Mark Reckless is the best possible end for Nigel Farage’s party conference, and the worst possible start for David Cameron’s. Tomorrow’s newspapers will lead on the story of Tory split, with Reckless and Douglas Carswell only the first two – I will be surprised if there is not a third before the election. Yes, Ed Miliband has had a dreadful party conference but every opinion poll and every bookmaker still has Labour on course to win the next general election. Why? Because there has been a great reversal in British politics: the left is now united and the right is split. listen to ‘Podcast special: Mark Reckless defects

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Nigel Farage concedes Ukip won’t win Heywood and Middleton by-election

Not long after John Bickley had appealed to Ukip delegates to help him win in Heywood and Middleton, Nigel Farage conceded that it wasn’t going to happen. In a briefing with journalists after his speech (the Ukip leader is very generous with his time for the London-based media establishment, far more so than any other leading politician), he said: ‘I think it’s too big a mountain to climb in that short a space of time, and I think the Labour party is saying that because they’ve got a very divided local party, they’re not happy with the candidate, they can’t get anyone out to canvass, and when they put the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The by-election battles have begun over Clacton and Heywood

Douglas Carswell has just finished speaking at the Ukip conference and his fellow by-election contender John Bickley, who is standing in Heywood and Middleton on the same day, has just given a short address too. He told the hall that ‘the dam is ready to burst’ and asked for members to pop in before they went to Clacton. Labour sources were last week claiming that their chance of holding onto the seat was looking shaky, which was read by many as an attempt to get their activists and MPs to take the fight seriously. But I hear that there is a fierce debate going on in Ukip between those who

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukip conference: Louise Bours’ shouty sermon on the NHS

Politicians always speak about the NHS with passion. It is our national religion. So today Louise Bours, Ukip’s health spokeswoman, adopted the demeanour of a Pentecostal preacher, addressing her party conference at such a high volume that MPs gathered in the House of Commons chamber could probably hear her as she pledged to work with Unite to oppose the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. She said she had received a letter from Len McCluskey outlining his concerns about the agreement, and replied: ‘UKIP WILL FIGHT ALONGSIDE YOU TO ENSURE THE NHS IS EXCLUDED FROM TTIP.’ This was an explicit attempt to quash Labour attacks on Ukip as a party that

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukip is trying to move beyond Nigel Farage

Quite naturally, the mood in the hall at the Ukip conference in Doncaster is far more upbeat than anything Labour could muster. This is an insurgent party on the brink of getting its own MP and that is spooking the Conservatives no end. So the party with a realistic chance of taking power next May seems depressed, while this party is full of beans. A series of speeches from policy spokespeople was intended to show that Ukip doesn’t just have one face representing it. This year’s conference is intended to show that Nigel Farage’s party really has grown up and has grown far beyond just his leadership. So those policy