Share

Ukip’s MP Douglas Carswell and millionaire donor in furious conference clash

Ukip aides arranged a meeting between Mr Farage and his fan and the Ukip leader invited her up to his room on the fourth floor at Doncaster racecourse so they could “get away from all the press”.

Advertisement

He said a new campaign – called Leave.eu – showed the “tide is turning” and Britain could vote to leave the union, which it joined as the European Economic Community in 1973.

The “Out” umbrella campaign, branded “Leave.EU”, has been set up by businessman Arron Banks, a financial backer to Britain’s anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP).

Donor Mr Banks later apologised after saying Mr Carswell was “borderline autistic with mental illness wrapped in”.

“We would look at the eurozone… we would look at the whole thing and say no, we are not going to join”.

Speaking today, Mr Carswell told UKIP members “we must be prepared to work with anyone” in the campaign to cut Britain’s ties with Brussels.

But when asked if Mr Carswell would accept his apology, he retorted: “I’m still waiting for mine”. He said Banks had no official position in Ukip so the idea that he could deselect Carswell did not make sense.

It is expected they will create a new group called “Leave.EU”. “Actually the other group who are eurosceptic but don’t advocate leaving are funded by Ukip backers as well”.

“Over the summer I had people contact me and say “we would like to offer a place in our family home for refugees”.

“[Nigel’s] right that we have to cooperate together, but it’s too early to get a formal structure in place”. “It Is wholly unacceptable”.

He said: “I know how unfair our voting system is”.

But Mr Farage’s speech was in danger of being overshadowed by professional controversialist Katie Hopkins’s claim that the photo of three year-old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned with his mother and brother trying to cross from Turkey to Greece by boat, had been “staged”. He said winning the European Union referendum was dearer to his heart than all other political goals, telling activists that now is the moment to “put country before party”.

The partnership gives UKIP’s 4 million voters the green light to support the No campaign under the auspices of Leave.eu. I am more interested in winning the referendum. The UKIP leader highlighted Corbyn’s opposition to the monarchy and his failure to sing the national anthem at a World War II commemorative event last week as a chance to attract patriotic voters.

However, For Britain has the support of nearly every Eurosceptic MP and a number of prominent political donors.

“There were also few families, children or even women”, he said.

Advertisement

“One of the problems with the Euroskeptic movement in this country…is that it’s very often fractured and it has very often been divided”, Farage told a crowd at a race course in Doncaster, a working class town that’s been Labour territory since the 1980s. Those who loved them, loved them – but their styles also put off many people who might otherwise have been receptive to the party’s message.

Ukip Party leader Nigel Farage delivers his keynote speech during the UKIP Annual Conference at Doncaster Racecourse