Rest in peace Ukip, now it’s up to Mrs May

TODAY the Mail is sad to report the death, at just 26, of one of the most effective forces ever to shake up British politics.

Founded in 1991 as the Anti-Federalist League, the UK Independence Party gave a powerful voice to patriotic voters disenfranchised by a political class selling out our nationhood to Brussels.

Indeed, without the efforts of Nigel Farage and his followers – contemptuously dismissed by David Cameron as ‘fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists’ – Britain would not be embarking today on the road back to self-government and true democracy.

But as yesterday’s local election results prove beyond question, the party’s time is over. Its founding mission accomplished on June 23, it has fallen victim to its success, losing all but one of the seats it contested.

Those same results show Ukip’s past supporters are clear who should be trusted to finish the job.

Not only did ex-Conservatives return to the fold. In Labour’s heartlands too, voters switched to the Tories – including many who simply despair over Jeremy Corbyn and his shambolic hard-Left team. Councils red for decades turned to blue.

Indeed, it is striking how few voted for the Lib Dems, who lost seats despite posturing as the new party of the Left and natural home of Remainers. Everywhere, people appear to accept Brexit – and now just want a government competent to see it through.

It’s the same story in SNP Scotland and Labour-run Wales, where voters also turned to the Tories, yearning for stability after years of drift. Indeed, who could have guessed that parts of blood-red Glasgow and the home turf of Labour hero Nye Bevan would turn blue?

But then under Theresa May, we are seeing a new kind of Conservative Party, very different from the elitist cronyism of the Cameron years.

If the Prime Minister is as wise as she seems, her election manifesto will put flesh on the bones of her pledge to govern for the whole country – those who are just managing, not merely the privileged few.

Yes, the local election results were hugely encouraging. But as we wish RIP to Ukip, the Tories cannot rest on their laurels.

Every vote they win on June 8 will be another card in Britain’s negotiating hand, and a richly deserved setback for Jean-Claude Juncker and Co. This is a battle for Britain – and Mrs May must put everything into winning it.