After such a tumultuous election defeat, it is not surprising that there is a revolt on the backbenches of one of the parties that was unsuccessful. The surprise is that the party that’s revolting – in every sense – is Ukip. A backbench revolt from a party with one MP.
Douglas Carswell, for it is he, has objected to Ukip trying to claim £600,000 of taxpayers’ (our) money on the basis of their national vote in order to fund 15 members of staff, essentially £600,000 for Carswell to have 15 members of staff. Even he can see that is plainly absurd, but Farage who has himself done very nicely thank you out of the EU he loathes, doesn’t agree with him. There are even suggestions that Carswell will leave Ukip and stand as an independent, or even rejoin the Tory party. The way things are going, Carswell could be the first MP to twice leave a political party to join one that’s even further to the right.
It gets even funnier when Ukip economics spokesman Patrick O’Flynn (who he?) tells The Times Mr Farage risked turning the party into a “personality cult”. What utter nonsense. Ukip has never been anything other than a one-man band! But wait, he goes even further, calling Farage a “snarling, thin-skinned, aggressive” man. Well, yes: those of us who fear the rise of the far right have seen that for years. That’s exactly how he comes across to me. But what comes next? This is my view.
In the 1970s, the far right National Front began to pick up significant support. You can argue that they were an openly fascist party and Ukip aren’t, but the truth is that the NF attracted support with its virulent attacks on immigration and Europe, just like Ukip does today. Under Callaghan’s Labour party, the NF made worrying inroads into Labour supporting heartlands with their message of hate and fear. It took the right wing authoritarian government of Margaret Thatcher to steal much of their thunder and slowly but surely the NF began to decline, eventually splitting into various factions including later the BNP. With BNP in chaos and almost total meltdown, up popped Farage, peddling hate and fear by way of his anti-immigrant, anti-Europe xenophobia. But now things have changed. David Cameron’s government won an outright majority.
No one can doubt that the new Tory government has hit the ground running. Within days, they have announced plans that will outlaw almost all strikes, they have refused to take any refugees from the humanitarian crisis off the coast of North Africa, they will bring forward the EU referendum to next year and they will scrap the Human Rights Act. All this, they promised to do in their manifesto. My question is this: what’s left for Ukip?
There is nothing left for Ukip, Farage or not. Cameron long moved to the right of politics to take on Ukip and no one, not even his critics like me, can deny him his success. They are now an irrelevance, calling for policies that are now being enacted by the Tory party which they now closely resemble. What is going on with Ukip is nothing more than a freak show being played out in the public eye which will lead to them splitting, as all extreme parties always do, often to form new parties who themselves soon fade and die.
The one consolation for Ukip in general and Farage in particular is that they actually were successful, if not for themselves but for the policies they have fought for. When cheering his demise, remember he has got a lot of what he wanted and Britain will suffer as a result.
