Nigel Farage is trying to create a professional party from a ragtag group more accustomed to setting the world to rights over pints of real ale
As the sun rose over Clacton in the hours after Ukip secured its first elected MP, Nigel Farage predicted that his Eurosceptic party could hold the balance of power at the next election.
Before setting its sights on May, Ukip is grappling with a more mundane challenge.
Mr Farage is trying to create a professional party from a ragtag group of veteran members more accustomed to setting the world to rights over pints of real ale than the strict discipline of modern politics.
Last May, Ukip moved into a new Mayfair office, formerly the home of Boris Johnson’s mayoralty campaign team, after it was offered rent-free by Andrew Reid, a solicitor.
Three months later, amid concerns that staff were running amok, Lisa Duffy, Ukip’s director, was sent in to sort things out.
In a confidential report presented to Ukip’s governing committee, Ms Duffy wrote that she had gone to the offices on party business “only to be embarrassed about the lack of cleanliness, silliness and lack of organisation and lack of people in offices”.
Describing how she had spent the first few days setting the office up in a “professional manner”, Ms Duffy said she had moved desks and organised a holiday rota which “identified that the following week we would have had no press officers if I hadn’t actioned this”.
She also removed “unprofessional” material from walls and hand written signs.
A former office worker said these included a “c*** of the week” award which was given to “whichever journalist had been the most critical that week”.
A hand-drawn picture of Mr Farage surrounded by hearts was pinned on the wall, alongside an “I love egg mayonnaise sandwiches” sign posted by Alexandra Phillips, a press officer.
Ms Duffy’s intervention in Ukip’s London offices came a few days after another attempt to professionalise the party had ended in disaster.
Will Gilpin, a former RAF pilot, began work in the £72,000-a-year post of chief executive in December 2012 but was sacked in August 2013.
He wrote to one member of the executive: “I’m afraid I came to the role in the belief it was actually a chief executive they were after, rather than chairman’s assistant.”
“In response to me saying I’m unhappy with how things are going I have been sacked. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to bring in the much needed modernizations, but it’s up to the leadership of course.”
The national executive committee (NEC) also had disputes over another key appointment, leaked emails reveal.
In May last year, Tim Aker, a political campaigner and former researcher, was put forward for the £62,000 post of head of policy.
William Dartmouth, a Ukip MEP, wrote to members of the NEC complaining that Mr Aker was being offered as the sole candidate and that he had been “directly concerned and therefore partly responsible for the embarrassment of the 2010 Ukip general election manifesto”.
Mr Farage, who backed Mr Aker, has previously disowned the 2010 manifesto as “drivel” and claimed he had never read it.
Mr Dartmouth said the manifesto was “electorally toxic” and that Mr Aker’s involvement with it should be a “total disqualification”.
Andrew Moncreiff, a member of Ukip’s executive committee, wrotethat Mr Aker was “harmless enough but thoroughly lightweight and has done virtually nothing for the party”.
Mr Aker did not reply to a request for comment.
Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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