And then there were four... the struggles of Ukip AMs
In 2016, Ukip made a significant breakthrough in Wales when it managed to get seven AMs elected. Now they’re down to a group of four. Chief reporter Martin Shipton considers whether their days are numbered.
THE departure of Caroline Jones from Ukip’s group at the National Assembly is hardly a surprise.
Very little is in the context of Ukip these days.
Its Assembly group has lost three of its original members – and refused to accept a replacement AM when she refused to sack the staff members she took over from her predecessor.
Political parties are notorious for their internal feuds – look at the Conservatives, Labour, Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, for example. But none of them match Ukip for vituperation and sheer hatred that on occasion can spill over into violence.
It’s all the more bizarre given that the party was set up for a single objective that is well on its way to being achieved, however chaotically.
In a strange way, the dissension that characterises Ukip has perhaps in a perverse way inspired conflict in other parties about Brexit.
Oddly enough, the mutual hostility between Ukip politicians has nothing to do with the cause the party was set up to promote. They’re all as committed to Brexit as they were from the outset – preferably of the hardest kind. Mention WTO tariffs and they drool with pleasure, as if paying more for goods and services is a totem we should unite around.
No – the hostility stems from personality clashes of an almost atavistic kind.
Were Nigel Farage and Neil Hamilton ever colleagues collaborating with a common objective in view? It’s difficult to imagine they were.
Equally for Neil Hamilton and Nathan Gill. Having won more seats in an Assembly election than the Liberal Democrats had ever managed to do, they didn’t sit down with each other to work out their approach to the body they were joining. Instead, Mr Hamilton – who had been out of elected politics for 19 years after having his reputation trashed in the “cash for questions” scandal – decided he should be group leader rather than Mr Gill.
That wasn’t actually the start of the falling out. There had already been many stories about Mr Hamilton’s bid to get selected for a winnable seat in Wales against the wishes of both Mr Gill and Mr Farage.
At the same time there were constant revelations about unsavoury comments made by Ukip candidates and elected members throughout Britain.
But when it came to the Assembly election in May 2016, people in all regions of Wales were prepared to put the negative publicity to one side and elect at least one Ukip AM to represent them. Many perhaps rationalised their choice by thinking they were actually voting for that nice Nigel Farage, with whom it would be so good to have a pint in a pub. More importantly, perhaps, Brexit had taken on a life of its own by the time the Assembly election was held. We were in the run-up to the referendum, which took place the following month, and a certain proportion of voters were prepared to chance their arm with a vote for Ukip, almost as a dress rehearsal for the Leave vote they’d decided to cast a few weeks later.
When the dust settled, there were seven pretty diverse characters making up the Ukip group: Nathan Gill, a senior Mormon who had operated as a gangmaster in Yorkshire, using labour from elsewhere in Europe and further afield; Neil Hamilton, a disgraced but articulate politician who had wormed his way back into the nation’s affections by transforming himself into a celebrity who appeared on daytime TV programmes; Mark Reckless, a cerebral former Tory rebel who pitched up in Wales after losing his seat at Westminster; Michelle Brown, who was quickly accused of leaving her Cardiff hotel room in a terrible mess after smoking “recreational drugs” and was later suspended from the Assembly after referring to the Labour MP Chukka Umunna as a “f... ing coconut”; Gareth Bennett, a onetime journalist and painter and decorator who has a problem with eastern Europeans and Muslims; David Rowlands, a businessman who had been part owner of a golf club that wasn’t a roaring success; and Caroline Jones, who sometimes showed disturbing signs of normality.
It was a diverse group, and perhaps one in which disputes were destined to flourish.
Now, under the leadership of Mr Bennett, Mr Hamilton, Mr Rowlands and Ms Brown are left to take the party forward. The Assembly isn’t yet half way through its current term, so there is plenty of time for further fallings out. Don’t bet against it. According to recent polls, Ukip is on course to retain just one of its seats at the next election in 2021 – and that would by no means be assured. But it may be too early to write Ukip off. Even John McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, is talking up their chances of revival if Brexit isn’t delivered.