Ukip descended into shambles

YOU would have been justified in thinking that after their relative success in the Brexit referendum last year, Ukip would have become a thriving, even possibly influential, party on the UK’s political landscape. But no.

Things have gone from bad to worse, to an utter shambles for them. Since that referendum, I have lost count of the number of failed leaders they have had. And the party is riddled with personal animosities, friction and political blood-letting.

At this rate, it seems likely to collapse into a heap of smoking dust at our feet. Indeed, that prospect is now seen in some quarters as inevitable. The latest chaotic event is the resignation of Mike Hookem, as the party’s deputy whip in the European Parliament. This is, he says, because Anne Marie Waters, who founded the Sharia Watch pressure group and has called Islam “evil”, has been allowed to stand in Ukip’s leadership election.

Hookem said he was not prepared to “turn a blind eye” to extremism and that Waters should not be in the party, never mind bidding for the leadership.

This now ludicrous outfit has certainly provided us with a textbook masterclass in how not to run a political party.

CHRIS MONCRIEFF

Mike Hookem, who has resigned as Ukip’s deputy whip in the EU Parliament