Nigel Farage is refusing to do any more campaigning for Ukip in the Stoke Central by-election after falling out with the new leader’s closest advisor, Huff Post UK has learned.
Farage last week appeared at a rally in Stoke to support Paul Nuttall’s bid to win the seat from Labour, but was furious to discover a Ukip member who had made a series of allegations about him was helping to run the event.
Lisa Duffy – who unsuccessfully stood to be party leader last summer – was secretly recorded by her campaign manager making claims about Farage’s personal life, which became the basis of a controversial book about Ukip.
Farage is considering suing Duffy over her comments, and was appalled to see her at the Victoria Hall in Stoke on February 6 when he addressed hundreds of local residents.
A source close to the former Ukip leader says he holds Patrick O’Flynn – Nuttall’s closest advisor – responsible for Duffy’s involvement.
Ukip MEP O’Flynn employs Duffy and her husband Peter Reeve as assistants in the European Parliament.
The source said: “Nigel told Paul he needed to get professionals in his team running Stoke. This week he is in Strasbourg as he does not want to be around Lisa Duffy after the false allegations she made up.
“The Labour candidate is so bad this election is Paul’s to lose, but he has been hijacked by people who do not have the skills they think they have.”
Philip Toscano/PA Archive
Patrick O’Flynn is one of Paul Nuttall’s closest advisors
Despite no longer being head of the party, Farage is still a popular figure, and drew a crowd of several hundreds to the public meeting on a cold and wet night in the Potteries last week.
Huff Post UK has learned he is unimpressed with the party’s campaigning operation in the seat, and after seeing Duffy called for her to be removed from the team.
O’Flynn refused to get rid of Duffy, leading Farage to vow to stay away from Stoke for the rest of the campaign.
The Ukip leader also faced questions early in the campaign about his eligibility to take part in the election after it emerged he had yet to stay in the Stoke house he had registered as his official address.
Jonathan Brady/PA Archive
Lisa Duffy finished second in the first of Ukip’s 2016 leadership contests
Labour is defending a majority of 5,179 in the by-election, caused by the resignation of Tristram Hunt at the end of January.
The party’s candidate, Gareth Snell, has also faced criticism, with numerous offensive posts on his Twitter feed aimed at women coming to the surface.
It is not the first time Farage has clashed with O’Flynn. In the aftermath of Ukip’s disappointing 2015 General Election result the former Daily Express Political Editor described the then-leader’s team of advisors as “wrong-uns” who had made Farage appear “thin-skinned, snarling and aggressive”.
In the EU Referendum, O’Flynn was the only Ukip MEP not to support the Farage-backed Grassroots Out bid for the official Leave campaign designation, instead siding with eventual winners Vote Leave.
ALL MY BLOGS & WEB SITES are clearly sourced to me
I do NOT use an obfuscated eMail address to hide behind
I do NOT use or bother reading FaceBook
I DO have a Voice Mail Message System
I ONLY GUARANTEE to answer identifiable eMails
I ONLY GUARANTEE to phone back identifiable UK Land Line Messages
I do NOT accept phone calls from witheld numbers
I Regret due to BT in this area I have a rubbish Broadband connection
I AM opposed to British membership of The EU
I AM opposed to Welsh, Scottish or English Independence within an interdependent UK
I am NOT a WARMIST
I do NOT believe the IPCC Climate Propaganda re Anthropogenic Global Warming
I AM strongly opposed to the subsidy or use of failed technologies eg. WIND TURBINES
I AM IN FAVOUR of rapid research & development of NEW NUCLEAR technologies
I see no evidence to trust POLITICIANS at any level or of any persuasion
I do NOT believe in GODS singular or plural, Bronze Age or Modern
I value the NHS as a HEALTH SERVICE NOT a Lifestyle support
I believe in a DEATH PENALTY for serial or GBH rape.
I believe in a DEATH PENALTY for serial, terrorist, mass or for pleasure murder.
I believe in a DEATH PENALTY for serial gross child abuse including sexual.
I do NOT trust or believe in armed police
I do NOT believe in prolonging human life beyond reasonable expectation of sentient participatory intellectual existence
I believe in EUTHENASIA under clearly defined & legal terms
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
Ukip A Fractured cult rather than a Party, now living under a glass ceiling and Facing Terminal Splits.
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Hi,lacking any vestige of competent leadership, driven forward by just one man
not only is the party deeply divided by the extraordinary diversity of its core membership, whether from Tory, Labour or the more extreme wing of sometime BNP & National Front supporters or the extremely divisive zionists of Friends of Israel or the dividing extreme fundamental Christians with their hatred of so much in the modern world, be that homosexuiality, competing sup[erstitions whether Catholic or Islam – Ukipwill always fight like ferrets in a sack.As a result Nigel Farage is able to bully and manipulate, astutely never putting pen to paper, rarely signing anything and employing staff to cope with his computer communications, on a deniable basis
By ensuring divisions amongst his cult followers and orchestrating the ex communication from the cult of anyone who may dare to challenge his absoiute control he has built in a glass ceiling within his comfort zone, ensuring his position as Ukip’s only recognised personna and able to invent suitable policies to keep him in the media eye as he feat6hers his nest!Fortunately more and more people are seeing through his scam – gone are the days of leaders with his style such as Oswald Moseley, Adolf Hitler and the like who managed to orchestrate their rise to personal power and wealth jumping on populist band wagons and exploiting prejudice – a policy hard to break through a glass ceiling opf between 10 & 20% with, due to social media and the communication ability of the public at large.
This of course means that after 22 years Nigel Farage has only now achieved the membership levels achieved by Oswald Mosleley who also exploited prejudice blaming a small sector of the community for the failures of the underbelly of the society.
Nigel Farage once had a clear message that was redollent with a huge percentage of the public with a desire for reinstatement of our national sovereignty and repatriation of our democratic human rights of self determination in opposition to the politicisation of the EU. Sadly this was a concept that required clear educated research, the wisdom to present a well thought out vision for a future independence and an understanding of the importance of international regulation of trade and rights to ensure a level playing field comparing like with like both for export and import of goods and to oil the wheels of global trade.
This unfortunately was beyond the leadership skills of Ukip for they had an excellent tune on their organ, a competent performing monkey but totally lacked an organ grinder of any professionalism
As a result Ukip has reverted to the position of a one man band chasing after the populist ant immigrant vote having lost sight of the goal and having never competently presented a vision for the future, just suitable sound bites for any given media opportunity.Thus after 22 years Ukip still has no clear organisational structure making it, like the house of cards, witghout resilience to the latest scandal they have engendered and without an sign of a responsible think tank to draw up policies and draft a consistent presentation of their vision of the benefits of independence.
For lack of the intellectual rigor of a think tank not only does Ukip, after 22 years of ‘claiming’ to espouse leaving the EU, ansolutely no sign of a responsible, thought through, ethical and costed EU eXit and survival strategy but consistently displays its fundamental lack of understanding of what such a strategy, leave alone the required tactics, would entail.
Also for lack of a clear intellectual base and a responsible and competent think tank Ukip has regularly had to resort to the man, or waman, of the moment to delegate to them, as individuals, the task of drawing up their manifesto – a task that has lurched from delay to disaster, duplicity to disappointment on a regular basis.
The lack of principled and consistent policies and the determination to have policies to engender the populist vote has left Ukip looking foolish all too often, desperately claiming that leaving the EU will provide an endless cornupocia of cash to fund each and every item on their ‘wish list’ – unaware that the better informed amongst the public realise that leaving the EU will, unlike the efforts at sp[reading fear by the Federalists in areas of the Government and Government cloned lightweight fronts such as Open EUrope and Business for EUrope, the informed realise that when we Leave_The_EU the benefits will largely be cost neutral and it is the principle, democracy, values, tolerance, inclusivity and identity that will be the greatest beneficiaries.
There will be no great burning of regulations as regulations are, in trade terms, essential to the wellbeing of industry, service and commerce in general if there is any aim to trade with others and across borders, where allegiances and agreements are essential to ensure balance and a level playing field comparing like with like, without misunderstandings that lead to conflict.
In its present form Ukip is as arcane and out moded as the very EU it so blithely and irresponsibly rants about!
That Ukip is failing to make progress is unsurprising and in its present form is unlikely to ever break the 20% glass ceiling it has imposed upon itself with its self serving incompetence. A concept Ukippers find hard to grasp but which is made abundantly clear by detailed analysis and competent survey as shown below:
The two tribes of UKIP
ew data from YouGov Profiles reveals the very different characteristics of UKIP voters with a Tory or Labour past
Although UKIP voters are more likely to be prior Conservatives, there are a significant number who have also switched from Labour. This much we already know, but new YouGov Profiles data reveals how different the two sides of UKIP really are – from their demographic background all the way down to the issues they feel strongly about and their TV viewing preferences.
Formerly Conservative voters (Blue UKIP) are most likely to reside in London (20%), the Midlands (17%) or the South (14%). 19% of previously Labour voters (Red UKIP) are also from the Midlands, but their next most likely residence is in Lancashire (16%) and Yorkshire (13%). Red UKIP are half as likely to have a university degree and are 16% more likely to be from a working class, C2DE social background.
They share a concern for core UKIP issues – immigration, the EU, crime – but Red Ukippers have strong support for nationalising railways and utilities, while Blue Ukippers are more likely to oppose political correctness and think multiculturalism has had a negative impact.
In terms of top scoring celebrities, Jim Davidson has strong appeal from both factions. Beyond that, the public faces most particular to Blue Ukippers are mainly from a political background (Margaret Thatcher notably scores highest) while entertainment celebrities like Piers Morgan and Louis Walsh may have a bigger pull for Red UKIP voters.
The pronounced taste for entertainment among Red UKIP voters carries over to the TV programmes they’ve recently watched that could carry adverstising. Programmes like I’m a Celebrity and Jeremy Kyle are particularly favoured by ex-Labour voters, however none of these feature in the Blue UKIP list. For former Tories, drama and crime programmes are more watched.
In the run up to the election, YouGov will be applying Profiles to every constituency in Britain. Users will be able to see detailed information on the quintessential resident of each locality, but they will also be able to see how each area divides on the big issues, compared to the region and Britain as a whole.
As This Blog Predicted – Open Warfare, Rivalry & Splits In Ukip are inevitable as the party has after 21 years still no responsible, honourable EU exit and survival strategy due to lack of competent leadership and consistent or costed policies.
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Hi,
as I wrote is some detail the most likely outcome of Ukip’s lack of competent leadership would lead to the party’s own self destruction as the egos of diametrically opposed values and beliefs joined together for personal gain despite the divergence of their ideologies.
Ukip just isn’t stable enough to cope with the size of egos it has attracted and even prior to its present parlous position Nigel Farage had fallen out with or stabbed in the back around 1/3rd. of his elected team!
EXCLUSIVE: MOVES TO REMOVE O’FLYNN AFTER ANTI-BUSINESS NEWSNIGHT INTERVIEW
by ANDRE WALKER 17 Nov 2014, 1:34 AM Senior members of UKIP are campaigning behind the scenes to have Patrick O’Flynn MEP removed as economic spokesman after his appearance on the BBC’s Newsnight programme last Monday night. In the interview O’Flynn called for higher taxes on business, having previously called for a tax on the turnover of companies so they would pay even if they did not make a profit. O’Flynn is widely seen as the standard bearer of the left of UKIP leading to “mutterings” against him. He is said to be keen to attract old Labour voters in places like Rotherham and Hull by pledging tax increases. At UKIP party conference he called for an increase in VAT on “luxury goods” such as shoes. The idea became known as the “Wag Tax” and caused so much embarrassment that Nigel Farage personally ticked off O’Flynn, and publicly distanced himself from the policy. Mr O’Flynn then advocated creating a 35 percent tax rate, which would lead UKIP into the general election advocating higher taxes than the Conservatives for those earning £49,000 a year. He is also a firm opponent of flat tax, which was party policy when 25,000 of their members joined. His opponents are now circulating a letter calling for him to go, which they hope to publish this week. One source who is not involved with the letter told Breitbart London: “He really does need to shut up with all talk of aggressive tax avoidance and bashing big business… It’s a real mistake to have a pinko in such an important position. “O’Flynn always says he’s never been a member of any other political party. That’s not a good thing, it means he lived through the Thatcher era and didn’t get excited by it.” Another said: “O’Flynn’s views are very dangerous for UKIP, he is determined to pander to the left in seats like Rotherham but this puts our core vote at risk. What’s the point in UKIP if all we do is swing with wind like the mainstream political parties. We’ve always prided ourselves on being above chasing whatever the latest opinion poll says.” In the Newsnight interview O’Flynn said businesses should not take steps to legally avoid tax: “We have this missing tax revenue, don’t we, we have this big hole despite some decent economic growth. I believe the cosy cartel of corporate Britain has a major role in that, and some of those companies are not paying their way…. We want to be on the side of the people,” he said. O’Flynn claimed that stopping tax avoidance “should not just be a left-wing point.” During the interview the MEP admitted he had never worked in a business role but claimed his time as a journalist at the Daily Express qualified him to hold his brief. This led a third detractors to say: “Patrick’s claim to have had a ‘proper job’ is very thin. He is so wrapped up in his London bubble, that he can’t see the difference between reality and the airy fairy ideological talk at dinner parties in Zone 1.”
& for a different take on this obvious deepening rift of policy and fundamental ideology in Ukip, which shows the party to be in the ludicrous position of Nigel Farage losing his control as the only recognised spokesman and policy inventor in his party to a challenge that can only lead to be the battle for leadership of the party and control of its future direction, as the ambition and diversity of views is palpable and can not contain the two factions in the one party.
This is just as this blog predicted when Farage bribed Patrick O’Flynn to betray his trade ethics as a journalist and write promotional pieces in the Express for a considerable time, without telling his readers that he was to be rewarded with the leading regional position and a near certain walk into the highly rewarded position of MEP, on the list system!
Ukip’s position gets yet more parlous as clearly Douglas Carswell, who now wields considerable clout within the UK base of Ukip as both an ex Tory and an elected MP and it is clear that his position is hugely different to that of Nigel Farage.
Clearly Nigel Farage’s income stream is deeply challenged and he will fight to the death to hang onto his position on the gravy train at all costs – clearly Ukip will be the victim in this three way power struggle.
Whatever the outcome of this rivalry there is no way it can be of benefit to Ukip but the winner can expect to follow Nigel Far5age in being able to make many £Millions personally and have at their disposal a great deal of ‘largess’ to spread amongst his family and chums as Farage has done for many years.
Firing Patrick O’Flynn would signal the start of Ukip’s slide back into fringe insignificance
But what else can Nigel Farage do to maintain his income stream & unique position?
The contradictions between Ukip’s Left and the Right threaten to tear the party apart
I suppose it was inevitable that, as Ukip gathered support, the party would start to collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.
An enormous split has now opened up over the economy. Indeed it is more correct to call it an abyss. It is far deeper and more divisive than anything currently going on inside the Conservative Party, or even in Ed Miliband’s Labour Party.
On the one side is Ukip’s libertarian Right, which wants Britain to resemble the United States as much as possible, with low taxes and minimal standards of social provision.
Its supporters say they look to Margaret Thatcher for their inspiration. But the truth is that Maggie Thatcher in office very rarely touched any of these advanced libertarian ideas, such as the flat tax.
This group cannot count for a great deal of support from ordinary members. It is, however, well represented among the small number of donors who dominate the party finances and can always rely on the ear of Nigel Farage.
Ukip also has a Left wing, and it is becoming clear that the party’s economics spokesman Patrick O’Flynn is its leader.
At Ukip’s party conference six weeks ago, Mr O’Flynn made a speech that appalled the libertarian Right of the party. Ever since then, its supporters have been intriguing against him and seeking to bring about his downfall.
There are two key elements of Mr O’Flynn’s speech. On the one hand, Mr O’Flynn advocated sharply raising income tax thresholds, so that middle earners did not come into the top rate of tax. This idea was promptly copied by David Cameron in his speech in Manchester the following week. Mr O’Flynn’s second idea was a tax on luxury goods, the so-called “Wag tax”. However, Ukip’s Right wing got hold of Nigel Farage immediately after Mr O’Flynn’s speech and forced the Ukip leader to distance himself from his economic spokesman.
One source is quoted as saying that Mr O’Flynn needs “does need to shut up with all talk of aggressive tax avoidance and bashing big business … It’s a real mistake to have a pinko in such an important position …” According to Breitbart, a letter will soon be circulated calling for him to go.
I should declare an interest. Mr O’Flynn was my colleague for many years on the Daily Express. He is a man who’s integrity and intellect I greatly admire. With his first-class degree in economics from King’s College Cambridge, he has always struck me as far more intelligent, and also far more connected with the views of ordinary voters, than George Osborne, the Chancellor.
I strongly believe that if the Ukip donors succeed in getting rid of Patrick O’Flynn it will mark the moment when the party returns to becoming a fringe movement of no significance. Mr O’Flynn’s emergence as a senior figure within the party has coincided with an exponential growth of party support amongst working-class voters, especially in the Midlands and the North. Indeed, as Matthew Goodwin pointed out in his article in the Telegraph today, Ukip support is by no means dependent on a small number of former Thatcherites.
Mr Farage claims to represent a different kind of politics to the mainstream political parties. There is some truth in this, but he is every bit as dependent on big powerful donors as is either David Cameron or Ed Miliband. He is in danger of allowing this dependence to damage the integrity of his party, with just six months to go before the general election.
Further provenance of this chasm that is growing ever wider in Ukip is shown by Sean Howlett in his internal letter to Steve Crowther as leaked to Guido Fawkes today:
Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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Philip Toscano/PA Archive
Jonathan Brady/PA Archive
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Ukip-vs-EUkip 