This should be a wonderful time to be in UKIP. We should be riding high, having finally got what we always wanted: a victorious referendum on leaving the European Union. We are well on the way to restoring national democracy and should, with some pride, be congratulating ourselves for arguably being the most successful political party of the 21st century.
We have a huge opportunity now to build on this triumph, starting with making sure the Conservative government delivers what the British people voted for. We will brook no quarter when it comes to Brexit, and Theresa May knows it. We voted to leave the European Union, and Leave means Leave. Nothing less will do and UKIP will make sure there is no backsliding.
Leaving the EU must mean leaving the Single Market. The IFS is wrong: https://t.co/CYbwdJT6IC
— Suzanne Evans (@SuzanneEvans1) August 10, 2016
There are other reasons to be cheerful too. Having run the Labour Party a close second in the North of England in last year’s general election, and secured 120 second places nationwide, UKIP is in a unique position to break apart the duopoly that has dominated British politics since its inception.
That the Labour Party is falling apart at the seams, holding a forced leadership contest that has to date featured more court cases than hustings, fortifies UKIP’s chance to muscle into Labour heartlands. With the right policies, the right campaign strategy, and the right candidates, the North of England could be ours for the taking.
Such great opportunities await. It is mission-critical to the future of UKIP that we take them. Our future is potentially very bright, so an absurd internal row is a distraction we can live without. I think the overwhelming majority of UKIP members are entirely disinterested in a pitched, egotistical battle about who is or isn’t on the leadership ballot paper. Most will just want to get on doing what UKIP has always done best: challenging the status quo and taking on the big political fights that the other parties wilfully ignore.
Brexit, Aussie-style immigration system, grammar schools: turns out #UKIP did win the last election after all
— Owen Bennett (@owenjbennett) August 9, 2016
I accept that change can be difficult, sometimes frightening, and Nigel Farage leaving and a new leader taking over is about as big a change as change gets in UKIP. Nigel was a titan. He dominated UKIP and became so intrinsic to our political brand that many believed he was the party.
Yet no political party that anticipates longevity can ever be just about one person, because that makes failure inevitable. Now is the time for a fresh approach, a more inclusive, consensual ‘shadow cabinet’ of talent to support the new leader who, in my view, must be a team player.
Our new leader must plan for the long-term success of UKIP, as opposed to ‘Nigel Farage’s party.’
At the hustings, which started on Monday, I suggest members ask what plans the leadership candidates have for including our current stars in their team, and how they will bring on new talent, so we can be strong, united, and progressively more competent. A good leader will recognise successful leadership can never be just about them, and this is a sea change I think is essential.
There is nothing I would have welcomed more than to have had the chance to stand for the UKIP leadership myself but, rightly or wrongly, that chance has been denied to me, as it has to Steven Woolfe.
Steven and I both think we have been treated unfairly, but we, too, have a choice. We can either bang on and on about it and try to whip up members into a frenzy to support us, potentially destroying the party in the process, and risk being portrayed as the self-serving politicians UKIP is supposed to oppose, or we can face facts and think not ‘what can our party do for us,’ but ‘what can we do for our party?’
There is nothing to stop a new leader putting both Steven and me in their top team, so we can continue to represent UKIP as well as we have ever done. Perhaps, one day, if either of us has the chance to stand for the leadership again, we will. But right now our job – and that of everyone who genuinely has UKIP’s best interests at heart – is to celebrate our achievements and re-focus on the far, far bigger prize of getting a vote-influencing band of MPs into parliament in 2020.
Suzanne Evans is former Deputy Chairman of UKIP.
