Nigel Farage, as anticipated, has become the leader of UKIP once again:
He picked up 6,085 votes, far ahead of his rivals. David Campbell-Bannerman picked up 1,404, economist Tim Congdon got 2,037 and Winston McKenzie received 530.
Farage, perhaps unsurprisingly, used his acceptance speech to mock ministers for cutting budgets while increasing EU expenditure. He said the political class had “never been more out of touch” and he did not have the “foggiest” idea what Mr Cameron’s Big Society meant.
MEP Lord Dartmouth tells me that UKIP will also be making political capital from the news that British prisoners will now get the vote – thanks to European law.
If you’ve forgotten why Farage disappeared in the first place it was to stand against John Bercow for his Buckinghamshire seat – unsuccessfully. (He suffered an accident on election day). The interim leader, Lord Pearson, was not an overwhelming success, admitting that he was “not much good at the party politics“.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey