UKIP looking to the future

AFTER the highs of Brexit, the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) approaches its spring conference suffering from an existential hangover.

Campaigning against Europe and mass immigration, UKIP has been gripped by infighting since charismatic leader Nigel Farage stepped down last year.

UKIP is gathering the troops for today’s conference in Bolton where it hopes to prime supporters to topple the Labour Party.

“I want to replace the Labour Party and make UKIP the voice of patriotic Britain,” Paul Nuttall said in his acceptance speech as new leader in November.

The first test of UKIP’s strategy comes in next Thursday’s by-election, when Nuttall seeks to prise open Labour’s 67-year-old stranglehold on the central England seat of Stoke-on-Trent and become party’s second MP. — AFP