‘Childish’ UKIP may be ready to grow up

“If there hadn’t been crusties throwing rocks at us we wouldn’t have made it into the international press.”

“Weird, ghastly and childish” it can only be Ukip. And that’s in their own words.

The anti-EU, anti-politics party is looking to relaunch this week after a relatively quiet few months and they are promising to put the antics of some members behind them.

Ukip’s Scottish arm launches its Euro election campaign today. The national party meets in Torquay on Friday where leader Nigel Farage will challenge David Cameron and Ed Miliband to join the forthcoming debate on the EU that he’s agreed with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg.

There is a disconnect in the party as new Scottish leader, David Coburn, talks up their chances while, nationwide, Ukip is desperately involved in an expectation management exercise as it becomes increasingly clear the party will fall short of Farage’s claim they will win the Euro elections in May.

The Scottish party has been beset by problems after an internal schism saw most of its slate of MEP candidates sacked.

David Coburn was dropped in from London and put in charge of the Euro campaign in Scotland which, if successful, will see him sent to Brussels.

He said: “There’s been some faction fighting and squabbling.

“There have been personality problems, all quite childish really. We’ve got a grip now. We’ve got rid of the problems and moved on.”

Describing his former colleagues as “problems” may seem harsh but like most Ukip leaders he doesn’t mince his words.

He added: “Scotland has a political establishment as immovable as the Politburo. The other parties want a Soviet-style state where everything is about bureaucracy, not business.

“You can’t get a cigarette paper between Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats but we’re going to upset their apple cart.

“As for the SNP, it’s not a Scottish party, it is an anti-English party. Alex Salmond wants to wrap himself in tartan and misty-eyed Jacobite notions of Sir Walter Scott’s Scotland. That doesn’t work in the 21st Century.”

The voting system for European elections means if Ukip can scoop 10% of the votes on May 22 they will return one MEP from Scotland.

Ukip have been polling between 7% and 14% recently. Coburn, Scottish and previously chairman of Ukip in London, hopes to do better.

He said: “If we get 22% we’ll get two MEPs. We’ll get at least one and I’m hopeful we’ll get two.”

Ukip have been seen as laughable in Scotland, only making the headlines when Nigel Farage is chased out of pubs. Coburn was sprayed with Coke during one such incident.

He smiled: “That did us more good than harm. If there hadn’t been crusties throwing rocks at us we wouldn’t have made it into the international press.”

Winning just one seat in Scotland would have huge ramifications.

Explained Coburn: “The SNP are terrified we get a good showing. There’s a creeping dissatisfaction in Scotland with the EU and if we win it will shoot the SNP fox that there isn’t anti-EU sentiment here.”

But while Coburn talks up Ukip in Scotland, nationwide the party is trying to dampen expectations. Nigel Farage had promised a “political earthquake” on May 22 with victory in the Euro elections. However polls now have the party running well behind Labour and scrapping with the Conservatives for second place.

A senior party source said: “We’ve floated the possibility of winning, but it’s not in the bag. We got 16% of the vote last time so if we get 20% this time that’s not really going down is it? I’ll be happy with, say, 28% of the vote and second place.”

Instead, they are trying to divert attention to local elections taking place in England the same day. Such polls have been a happy hunting ground for the party in recent years even if some of their candidates have since been shamed for posting anti-Muslim rants on the web, urging women not to wear trousers and blaming recent floods on homosexuals.

The Ukip source added: “Yes, one or two of our troops have been busted for being weird and ghastly, but the vast majority have worked hard and gained a reputation as local performers on local issues.”

In Torquay, Farage is expected to talk as much about local issues, particularly flood defences in light of the battering they’ve taken in recent weeks, as he is about Europe which will mark a big change.

Ukip may be growing up.

The chance to debate Clegg on the EU, some time in April, offers Farage the chance not just to appear the political equal of the Deputy Prime Minister but to put that new attitude to the test.