UKIP has now officially been wiped off the face of the map. Electorally speaking.

UKIP Gutted Brexit
Support us and go ad-free

UKIP has lost control of its last remaining local authority, after a councillor defected to the Tories. And it completes the far-right party’s democratic wipeout; as it now has no MPs and lost 145 council seats at the last local elections.

Filleted

Thanet Council was previously a UKIP-led authority, with the party holding a majority of 27 seats. But on 21 July, councillor Beverly Martin defected from UKIP to the Conservatives; meaning that her former party lost overall control. It is now possible that, if the Tories, Labour and independent councillors form a working coalition, they could defeat UKIP.

Martin, who has changed parties twice before, told BBC News:

We had the opportunity to be a flagship council, that is a very rare privilege and I really had enormous hopes that we would make significant changes on social issues, development and economic issues. Frankly we haven’t, not as UKIP. It’s Craig Mackinlay, our [Tory] MP for South Thanet who invited me last year to form a group for assessing what we might do with the port and the beaches, that came from the Conservatives. That is where the energy is coming from.

Kippered

The loss of control of Thanet Council comes after a local election wipeout for UKIP in May. It lost 145 seats, leaving it in control of just Thanet Council. And the party got a trouncing in the general election on 8 June, getting just 1.8% (594,000) of the vote; down 10.8% on 2015. Its leader at the time, Paul Nuttall, resigned immediately, saying:

If UKIP is to prosper, it must continue to be the outrider of British politics – the party that leads and does not follow…

UKIP: gutted

But unfortunately for its new interim leader, Steve Crowther, UKIP is doing very little leading at present. And with the unceremonious loss of Thanet Council, it would seem that the public neither wants UKIP to lead them, nor do they wish to follow it.

Read on...

Support us and go ad-free

Get Involved!

Join The Canary, so we can keep holding the powerful to account.

Featured image via Flickr

Support us and go ad-free

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us

Comments are closed