What’s the next game for UKIP’s former leader Nigel Farage and top backer Arron Banks?
UKIP itself may be nearing its sell-by date. With the party’s prime goal of Brexit virtually achieved and Farage handing over today to a little known leader, Diane James, it is not clear where the party itself goes.
But that doesn’t mean UKIP’s prime movers have given up their ambitions. So far there are a couple of clues to what they might do.
First, Banks, the tycoon and co-founder of Leave.EU, told The Times earlier this month that he wants to create a “right-wing Momentum” to “keep the Tories clean”. Momentum is the hard-left pressure group within Labour that has been the main source of Jeremy Corbyn’s power. Banks, who backed James as UKIP leader, refused to tell The Times whether Farage would be involved in his initiative.
The tycoon’s scheme follows Leave.EU’s decision to endorse Andrea Leadsom, considered a hard Brexiteer, in the her ill-fated campaign to become Tory leader. If she’d won, Banks might have had a good entree into Downing Street.
Second, one of Farage’s aides has defected to the Conservatives. Alex Phillips, who was UKIP’s head of media for two years, told the BBC today that she was impressed by Theresa May – mentioning how the government was putting in place UKIP policies on grammar schools and Brexit.
Phillips also said UKIP was in a “catastrophic mess” and riven by irreparable schisms and divisions. Her defection to the Tories followed hard on the heels of a similar departure by Steve Stanbury, a former UKIP director, to the Conservatives.
It is still not clear what to make of these clues. However, if Banks is successful in creating a right-wing Momentum that gains significant influence within the Tory party, we will be heading for a hard Brexit. Life will also be even tougher for pro-European Conservatives. And if both Labour and the Tories were pulled to the extremes, a big chunk of the population wouldn’t have any natural home.
This article was updated shortly after publication to add the fact that Banks backed James as UKIP leader and that Stanbury had defected to the Conservatives.