Ukip infighting just party 'blowing off steam', says Nigel Farage

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/15/ukip-infighting-nigel-farage-party-blowing-off-steam

Version 0 of 1.

Nigel Farage has attributed a row between competing factions of his party to people “blowing off steam” after the election and ruled out standing down as leader.

The Ukip leader is facing a fight to keep his position ahead of an EU referendum as several senior party figures called for him to resign and two of his key advisers left their roles.

Speaking to a BBC Question Time audience on Thursday night, Farage said political parties were put under a huge amount of pressure during election campaigns and could become like “a boiler room or a pressure cooker”.

Asked if he would remain as Ukip leader, Farage said he had worked his whole political life to see a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union and that “now would have been, in retrospect, the wrong time to go”.

The party was gripped by rancorous infighting on Thursday just days after Farage reversed his decision to resign as leader in the aftermath of a humiliating election defeat in his target seat of South Thanet.

Festering tensions at the heart of Ukip broke into the open after Patrick O’Flynn, the party’s campaign director, said Farage had turned into a “snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive” man during the election and warned of the party turning into a personality cult.

He broke cover in an interview with the Times (paywall), in which he blamed failures in the party’s campaign on Farage’s closest aides. The comments were thought to refer to Raheem Kassam, the leader’s chief of staff, and Matthew Richardson, the party secretary, both of whom said they would stand down after O’Flynn’s comments.

The Ukip leader’s problems then escalated on Thursday when Stuart Wheeler, a major donor, and Hugh Williams, a co-treasurer, said it was time for him to go.

But Farage’s position was shored up by the release of several supportive statements from other donors, including Richard Desmond, the Daily Express newspaper owner, and Arron Banks, a businessman. Desmond said: “Nigel has my support 101%.”

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme on Friday, Kassam said he thought O’Flynn’s grievances should have been aired during the campaign period. “It strikes me as a little bit bizarrely opportune for this all to come out straight after the election.”

Commenting on Farage’s leadership of the party, he said: “I don’t think anybody apart from Nigel has the wherewithal and the political nous to make snap decisions based on [the fact that the party only got one seat but 4m votes in the general election].”

Kassam told Sky News on Thursday evening that O’Flynn “ain’t seen nothing yet” when it comes to aggressive-style politics as he would be returning to a role as a journalist at the rightwing website Breitbart London. “I will be scrutinising quite heavily what the Red Ukip team are trying to do to the organisation,” he said.

A source with knowledge of Ukip’s internal politics said the root of the battle for the heart of the party is about the role to be played by Farage in any in/out EU referendum. Many Eurosceptics, including some within the Conservative party and Ukip, fear the prospect of Farage being the voice of the out campaign because he is too controversial.

Farage told Question Time he had the overwhelming backing of party members and leaving before a referendum on the crucial issue of the EU would be wrong. “The level of support for me in the party is phenomenal and, frankly, to go through a leadership contest at a time when Cameron says he’s renegotiating our relationship with the European Union would be a massive, massive mistake,” he said.

Wheeler, who has given hundreds of thousands of pounds to the party, told BBC Radio 5 Live that it was “time for something quieter” in terms of the Ukip leadership. He said he thought Farage was exhausted, in pain from back problems and should not have unresigned, at least until a new contest could be held in the autumn.

Wheeler said Farage was too aggressive and divisive as the party headed into the crucial period before the EU referendum, which would give Ukip the opportunity to campaign for its main aim of leaving.