UKIP have no long term future – but surely that’s what they want?

UKIP is a one-issue party. When they’re name is devoted to the single issue of removing the UK from the EU, the job of portraying themselves as a wider political force is much harder.  But they can only really be united over one issue. Leaving the EU (and reducing immigration) is pretty much the only thing kippers can agree on.  Many consider the party right wing, but in truth their policies are all over the place. They don’t represent libertarians (their plans to invest further in NHS and transport is proof of this), they don’t represent liberals, they don’t represent the left-wing (who are mostly pro-Europe, and anyway UKIP supports tax cuts for those earning “higher” amounts). They only really represent people who want the UK to get out of the EU and reduce immigration.

Nigel Farage has realised this. UKIP became caught up in a euphoria generated by their rising success in the lead up to the general election. Despite their success (4 million votes is a success) at the election, they still only came out with one seat (half of what they went in with) and this knocked them down with a bump. Dreams of being in government were very real on May 6 (the Conservatives would surely need a coalition partner, and the Lib Dems weren’t up to the job). Ukippers must have thought they would be a significant part of the opposition. But by May 8, all of this had been thrown out of the window, and, let’s face it, UKIP will never see this kind of support again. And this is what Farage has realised; he’s gone back to before the party got caught up in the excitement of the election and government and brought UKIP back to being a cause and campaign group.

UKIP is part of an umbrella group of Eurosceptics: ‘leave.eu’. I say ‘part of’, UKIP is pretty much the only main group in it. But this is now their main focus; forget developing policies and putting resources into anything else, UKIP is fully focused on getting the UK out of the EU. So when we the referendum has happened (whether that’s next year or the year after) UKIP may become irrelevant. If they’re successful, this is pretty much inevitable. There will be no need for UKIP; the cause that united them will be gone and there isn’t much else that they agree on. If the public votes to stay in the EU then it is possible (though certainly not inevitable) that they are able to bounce back as a serious political force: the SNP effect.

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By: Toby Gould, Student Voices Editor