![]() “Ukip forced the immigration issue to be heard. “Under my leadership we will continue to insist that free movement of people from the EU ends,” she said. With a sign behind her displaying the slogan “Real People, Real Lives, Real Change”, Duffy, a mother of six, told a small group of supporters and reporters on Thursday that Ukip could continue to connect by saying what the established view suggests is unmentionable. As Field warns, its flourishing in the future may depend on developing that identity at the expense of Labour. For the moment, Ukip has already occupied that political space among swaths of the post-industrial working class. On Saturday Frank Field, Labour MP for Birkenhead, who is admired even among Ukip members in the Wirral, warned that Labour had to be “the English party” or nothing. Senior Labour figures have warned for months that the Labour electorate’s breach with its leader over the referendum could mark the point at which the party collapses in the north, as it did in Scotland after the independence referendum. ![]() ![]() There is particular optimism in its northern heartlands, where so many Labour voters supported Leave. Labour’s implosion, and the reluctance of many in that party, including leadership challenger Owen Smith, to accept Brexit, also suggests to them that this could be a moment of rebirth, rather than sudden irrelevance. On Thursday morning, in a dimly lit conference room in the Marriott hotel on the Embankment in London, Lisa Duffy, a councillor in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, launched her bid to be that leader – and to prove Goodwin wrong.Īs with all the five, and counting, potential candidates (the nomination process finishes on Sunday), Duffy believes that the elevation of May, who was a cautious supporter for remaining in the EU, means that the party has a role and a duty to hold the government’s feet to the fire. And I think that much of that will appeal to a good chunk of Ukip electorate and they may well decide they want to go back to the Conservative party, which will pose a further challenge whoever succeeds Nigel Farage.” “I think Theresa May will be pushing a ‘Brexit means Brexit’ line. So I would expect the party to struggle going forward. “They clearly have some challenges around money, and the current group of leadership candidates, it could be argued, are lacking in star power and competence. “I think they face a number of challenges and things are going to be very difficult for them to transition in a post Nigel Farage and Brexit era,” said Matthew Goodwin, associate professor at the University of Nottingham and co-author of the definitive account of Ukip, Revolt on the Right. EU funding for its MEPs will obviously stop soon and the party’s finances have never been robust. Some even believe it could be the end of the Kippers’ adventure in British politics. A group of largely anonymous figures are vying to replace him. In the Misty Blues, free Vote Leave pens from the referendum were on offer and a rendition of God Save the Queen was performed with gusto at the end of the evening.īut Farage has now gone, mission accomplished, and as the Wirral member pointed out, where Ukip goes next is not entirely clear. Nigel Farage called 23 June – the day the UK voted to leave the European Union – Britain’s Independence Day. “We need to know that before we talk about anything else.” “What now, after the referendum, are we here to do as Ukip?” he shouted out. Ukip came third here in 2015, but its vote was up by nearly 9%, and it was close to pipping the Tories.īut one man sitting in an alcove at the back couldn’t hold back his frustration. Evidently a popular, motherly figure in the party, Walters’s stated intention to challenge the local Labour MP, Angela Eagle, at the next general election was also well received.
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