Ukip has work to do

These should be the best of days for supporters of the UK Independence Party. After years on the fringes of politics prosecuting a cause they were told was outlandish and even reprehensible, they last year saw their beliefs vindicated when Britain voted to leave the European Union. As Britain prepares for Brexit, one might expect Ukip to be playing a central role in the debate about that departure, ensuring that the instruction the people gave at the referendum is fully and properly implemented.

Instead, Ukip is facing awkward questions about its campaigning operation after failing to break through in the Stoke by-election, and is distracted by internal tensions over the future of its sole MP, Douglas Carswell. Mr Carswell is a man of great principle and honour, but not always collegiate; since defecting to Ukip from the Conservatives, he has had a difficult relationship with Nigel Farage. Those difficulties have boiled over in a public row over a possible knighthood for Mr Farage.

This newspaper has previously suggested that as the man who arguably did more than any other to make possible Britain’s exit from the EU, Mr Farage is deserving of a higher honour. A peerage would go some way to addressing the upper house’s strong tilt towards the European cause. It would also ensure that Mr Farage’s voice and the concerns of the many voters he speaks for were properly heard at the heart of the British political system.

For all Theresa May’s sterling work to date, there remains a useful role for Ukip in the politics of Brexit Britain. Playing that role is vastly more important than settling internal scores. Ukip’s leading figures should put aside their differences, and soon.