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Suzanne Evans votes to leave the bureaucratic Ukip leadership race Suzanne Evans votes to leave the bureaucratic Ukip leadership race | |
(5 months later) | |
For three days last summer, Suzanne Evans was leader of Ukip. That’s how long it took the party to realise it had made a hideous mistake and reappoint Nigel Farage, by then unresigned, who had stood down after failing to become an MP for the seventh time at the general election. Evans has since been withdrawn as an official Ukip spokeswoman, reinstated as an official Ukip spokeswoman following an inquiry and subsequently suspended by Ukip’s national executive committee for six months. It turns out that Labour isn’t the only party struggling to find a kinder, gentler way of doing politics. | For three days last summer, Suzanne Evans was leader of Ukip. That’s how long it took the party to realise it had made a hideous mistake and reappoint Nigel Farage, by then unresigned, who had stood down after failing to become an MP for the seventh time at the general election. Evans has since been withdrawn as an official Ukip spokeswoman, reinstated as an official Ukip spokeswoman following an inquiry and subsequently suspended by Ukip’s national executive committee for six months. It turns out that Labour isn’t the only party struggling to find a kinder, gentler way of doing politics. |
Evans’s crime has been to be the sort of candidate that normal people might want to vote for, as long as they didn’t have to think too hard about what she was saying. She’s very much of the Ukip-lite, “some of my best friends are black” wing of the party, which is a niche market at the best of times – people don’t tend to support Ukip because they are overendowed with liberal, multicultural sentiments – and all the more so at a time when the party has done so well in the referendum by whipping up hatred for foreigners with racist poster campaigns. | Evans’s crime has been to be the sort of candidate that normal people might want to vote for, as long as they didn’t have to think too hard about what she was saying. She’s very much of the Ukip-lite, “some of my best friends are black” wing of the party, which is a niche market at the best of times – people don’t tend to support Ukip because they are overendowed with liberal, multicultural sentiments – and all the more so at a time when the party has done so well in the referendum by whipping up hatred for foreigners with racist poster campaigns. |
Ever since Farage resigned as party leader earlier this month, Evans has been struggling to get her name on the ballot paper to take back control for the second time due to her suspension. On Tuesday, at a personal cost of about £133, she had rented a room in Westminster for an hour to inform the world of her progress against the Faragists. | Ever since Farage resigned as party leader earlier this month, Evans has been struggling to get her name on the ballot paper to take back control for the second time due to her suspension. On Tuesday, at a personal cost of about £133, she had rented a room in Westminster for an hour to inform the world of her progress against the Faragists. |
“I have something absolutely momentous to tell you,” she had promised. As there wasn’t much else on, what with Theresa May flying around Europe trying to kiss and make up with all the leaders that Boris Johnson had managed to insult and Labour trying to resolve its fraternal differences in the family division courts, a dozen or so hacks trotted along to hear what she had to say. Could it be that Farage was about to be exposed as one of the guests at the Surrey pool party? | “I have something absolutely momentous to tell you,” she had promised. As there wasn’t much else on, what with Theresa May flying around Europe trying to kiss and make up with all the leaders that Boris Johnson had managed to insult and Labour trying to resolve its fraternal differences in the family division courts, a dozen or so hacks trotted along to hear what she had to say. Could it be that Farage was about to be exposed as one of the guests at the Surrey pool party? |
Evans bustled into the cramped room purposefully and began reading from a lectern. “Thank you so much for coming to hear my truly momentous news,” she said. “I have now given up hope of becoming Ukip leader as there is an old guard at the top who are behaving like a bunch of hardened EU bureaucrats. So it is with the greatest reluctance that …” | Evans bustled into the cramped room purposefully and began reading from a lectern. “Thank you so much for coming to hear my truly momentous news,” she said. “I have now given up hope of becoming Ukip leader as there is an old guard at the top who are behaving like a bunch of hardened EU bureaucrats. So it is with the greatest reluctance that …” |
This felt more like an announcement that could have been delivered to everyone’s email spam folders rather than one requiring a press conference, but Evans was determined to milk her moment. She paused, striving for some dramatic tension. “… I have to say I am not going to stand to be leader of Ukip.” At this point, it began to dawn on her that she wasn’t connecting with her audience. We didn’t share her pain. | This felt more like an announcement that could have been delivered to everyone’s email spam folders rather than one requiring a press conference, but Evans was determined to milk her moment. She paused, striving for some dramatic tension. “… I have to say I am not going to stand to be leader of Ukip.” At this point, it began to dawn on her that she wasn’t connecting with her audience. We didn’t share her pain. |
She gulped back her disappointment and pressed on. “However, I won’t be leaving Ukip as I have had messages from at least eight people begging me not to,” she continued, totally unaware of the irony that she had spent years campaigning for Britain to leave the EU because EU bureaucrats had been behaving like EU bureaucrats, and was now campaigning for herself to stay in Ukip just as the party’s leadership start behaving like EU bureaucrats. | She gulped back her disappointment and pressed on. “However, I won’t be leaving Ukip as I have had messages from at least eight people begging me not to,” she continued, totally unaware of the irony that she had spent years campaigning for Britain to leave the EU because EU bureaucrats had been behaving like EU bureaucrats, and was now campaigning for herself to stay in Ukip just as the party’s leadership start behaving like EU bureaucrats. |
“Instead, I will be throwing my support behind Lisa Duffy to be the next leader,” she said. Lisa who? There was a moment’s excitement that Lisa might be related to Gillian Duffy, but this proved to be a false dawn. Lisa is currently a hologram masquerading as a Ukip councillor so was unfortunately unable to introduce herself in person, but Suzanne was adamant that Lisa was one of the new caring, sharing Ukippers and that, if she were selected to lead the party – “she doesn’t have a leadership team yet, so I’m not on it, but when I tell her what her leadership team is, then I am sure I will be” – the old velvet-collared, golf club diehards could go off and join the Tory party instead. | “Instead, I will be throwing my support behind Lisa Duffy to be the next leader,” she said. Lisa who? There was a moment’s excitement that Lisa might be related to Gillian Duffy, but this proved to be a false dawn. Lisa is currently a hologram masquerading as a Ukip councillor so was unfortunately unable to introduce herself in person, but Suzanne was adamant that Lisa was one of the new caring, sharing Ukippers and that, if she were selected to lead the party – “she doesn’t have a leadership team yet, so I’m not on it, but when I tell her what her leadership team is, then I am sure I will be” – the old velvet-collared, golf club diehards could go off and join the Tory party instead. |
By now, everyone was starting to get fidgety. There have been few certainties in politics during the past couple of months, but one thing you can be sure of is that there is no chance of the unknown Lisa becoming the next Ukip leader. Wisely, Suzanne decided to wind things up. “I very much hope you will all come to Lisa’s launch on Thursday,” she concluded. Out came the biros. That was one date everyone would make a point of missing. | By now, everyone was starting to get fidgety. There have been few certainties in politics during the past couple of months, but one thing you can be sure of is that there is no chance of the unknown Lisa becoming the next Ukip leader. Wisely, Suzanne decided to wind things up. “I very much hope you will all come to Lisa’s launch on Thursday,” she concluded. Out came the biros. That was one date everyone would make a point of missing. |