Photo: Flickr
It wasn’t just the Tories who took a battering during this week’s Local Elections. UKIP, the former darlings of the far-right, also endured a catastrophic campaign after EVERY one of their remaining councillors were ousted.
The party, which made a name for itself through rampant Euro-scepticism and blaming homosexuals for bad weather, rose to prominence during the early 2000s. The leadership of Nigel Farage took the fringe party to the very frontline of British politics.
However, as the Tories lurched further the to right, UKIP failed to maintain its relevance. After starting as a single-issue party, the Brexit vote – somewhat ironically – created a dead-end for Farage and his colleagues.
In the years that have followed, UKIP have been hampered by bitter in-fighting, and a constant cycle of leadership change. When “Dick Braine” failed to unite them, the writing was already on the wall for the nationalist party.
Their capitulation was official confirmed on Friday. UKIP lost their remaining six councillors, after they were comprehensively voted out of local office. The party now officially has no representation, at either a regional or national level.
In fact, it was a fairly bruising ballot for all right-leaning parties. On top of the failures of Tory and UKIP candidates, the Reform Party also failed to gain more councillors. Meanwhile, Britain First leader Paul Golding finished LAST in his local ward.
The people of Swanscombe, near Dartford, soundly rejected the extreme-right representative. He totalled just 107 votes – fewer than 5% of ballots cast across the entire ward – and spectacularly failed in his bid to become part of the political establishment.
Maybe we should start calling them Britain Last – for accuracy’s sake?
