Tuesday, August 25, 2020
How UKIP self-destructed in Wales
As Wales-on-line points out, the 2016 Senedd elections were a real high water mark for UKIP in Wales. With the EU Referendum just over a month away they received a sizable 13% of the vote in the elections for the then Welsh Assembly, they won seven of the sixty seats and had established a powerbase for their party unrivalled anywhere else in the UK.
Just a few weeks later the UK voted to leave the EU and suddenly the party had no reason to exist. Will Hayward takes up the story:
Fast forward four years and the original group of seven have had more parties than a footballer during lockdown - climate change denier Neil Hamilton is the only UKIP MS left in the Senedd.
It turns out that for many of the UKIP members, their hatred of the EU was second only to their hatred of each other.
Within days of being elected the infighting had started as Hamilton defeated then Wales party leader Nathan Gill and took his throne to head the party’s National Assembly group.
Hamilton was supported by Michelle Brown, Gareth Bennett and Caroline Jones, while Mr Gill had the support of Mark Reckless and David Rowlands.
Then UKIP leader Nigel Farage described the move as an "unjust and an act of deep ingratitude".
Hamilton, who pocketed an extra £20,000 a year of public money as the group leader, was accused by Nathan Gill of dividing the party.
But despite these divides there was still the EU keeping them all together.
Then the EU referendum happened and took with it UKIP's raison d'etre. Over the next four years all but Hamilton would jump ship.
Member for North Wales Michelle Brown resigned from the group in 2019 citing sexism and attacks on Islam among her reasons.
Speaking to the BBC at the time she said: "The group does not function as a group but as a boys' club - it is not by chance that the group no longer has any female members. "
Ms Brown had her own share of controversy while in UKIP when she was recorded calling then Labour MP Chuka Umunna a "f**king coconut" and was also accused of smoking recreational drugs in a hotel room.
Nathan Gill resigned as an AM in 2017 and was replaced by Mandy Jones, but not before his media advisor Alexandra Phillips described the situation within the Welsh party as a "war zone".
Mark Reckless, who had previously been a Tory MP before defecting to UKIP, then left UKIP in 2017 to join the Conservative Group in the Senedd, though he didn't rejoin the party - managing to keep up?
In May last year it seemed the fortunes of some of Wales' Brexiteer politicians were on the up with PM Theresa May seen as not delivering the Brexit many dreamed of.
There was a vacuum in British politics that Nigel Farage tried to fill with his new Brexit Party. With Reckless as the leader, Mandy Jones, Caroline Jones and David Rowlands all joined, forming a new assembly group.
But then, just as everything was looking rosy for the Brexit Party, another terrible thing happened - yet again they got exactly what they wanted.
May was out and Boris Johnson was in, and ready to run an election campaign based solely on "getting Brexit done".
By the end of 2019 it was clear how little electoral clout the Brexit Party would carry in a post Brexit world, receiving just 2% of the vote in the 2019 election.
There are soap operas that would lose credibility with this sort of plot line, but the saga continues - there have been more defections, resignations and some juicy salaries being paid to the families of former UKIP MSs at the taxpayer's expense - read the rest of the article for details.
The various factions now have splinter groups within splinter groups, with different parties being formed around them ready to contest next year's Senedd elections. But the real victim in all of this is Welsh democracy.
The fifth Senedd and devolution itself, has been poorer because of the participation of this group of individuals. They have dragged down the level of debate and turned Cardiff Bay into their own little war zone. Let us hope that the Welsh electorate rid us of their presence once and for all in May.
Just a few weeks later the UK voted to leave the EU and suddenly the party had no reason to exist. Will Hayward takes up the story:
Fast forward four years and the original group of seven have had more parties than a footballer during lockdown - climate change denier Neil Hamilton is the only UKIP MS left in the Senedd.
It turns out that for many of the UKIP members, their hatred of the EU was second only to their hatred of each other.
Within days of being elected the infighting had started as Hamilton defeated then Wales party leader Nathan Gill and took his throne to head the party’s National Assembly group.
Hamilton was supported by Michelle Brown, Gareth Bennett and Caroline Jones, while Mr Gill had the support of Mark Reckless and David Rowlands.
Then UKIP leader Nigel Farage described the move as an "unjust and an act of deep ingratitude".
Hamilton, who pocketed an extra £20,000 a year of public money as the group leader, was accused by Nathan Gill of dividing the party.
But despite these divides there was still the EU keeping them all together.
Then the EU referendum happened and took with it UKIP's raison d'etre. Over the next four years all but Hamilton would jump ship.
Member for North Wales Michelle Brown resigned from the group in 2019 citing sexism and attacks on Islam among her reasons.
Speaking to the BBC at the time she said: "The group does not function as a group but as a boys' club - it is not by chance that the group no longer has any female members. "
Ms Brown had her own share of controversy while in UKIP when she was recorded calling then Labour MP Chuka Umunna a "f**king coconut" and was also accused of smoking recreational drugs in a hotel room.
Nathan Gill resigned as an AM in 2017 and was replaced by Mandy Jones, but not before his media advisor Alexandra Phillips described the situation within the Welsh party as a "war zone".
Mark Reckless, who had previously been a Tory MP before defecting to UKIP, then left UKIP in 2017 to join the Conservative Group in the Senedd, though he didn't rejoin the party - managing to keep up?
In May last year it seemed the fortunes of some of Wales' Brexiteer politicians were on the up with PM Theresa May seen as not delivering the Brexit many dreamed of.
There was a vacuum in British politics that Nigel Farage tried to fill with his new Brexit Party. With Reckless as the leader, Mandy Jones, Caroline Jones and David Rowlands all joined, forming a new assembly group.
But then, just as everything was looking rosy for the Brexit Party, another terrible thing happened - yet again they got exactly what they wanted.
May was out and Boris Johnson was in, and ready to run an election campaign based solely on "getting Brexit done".
By the end of 2019 it was clear how little electoral clout the Brexit Party would carry in a post Brexit world, receiving just 2% of the vote in the 2019 election.
There are soap operas that would lose credibility with this sort of plot line, but the saga continues - there have been more defections, resignations and some juicy salaries being paid to the families of former UKIP MSs at the taxpayer's expense - read the rest of the article for details.
The various factions now have splinter groups within splinter groups, with different parties being formed around them ready to contest next year's Senedd elections. But the real victim in all of this is Welsh democracy.
The fifth Senedd and devolution itself, has been poorer because of the participation of this group of individuals. They have dragged down the level of debate and turned Cardiff Bay into their own little war zone. Let us hope that the Welsh electorate rid us of their presence once and for all in May.
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The rise of UKIP had one good effect: the sucking up of reactionary votes which formerly went to neo-Nazi parties. As a consequence, these fell off the media radar and became financially non-viable.
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