Politics

Ukip Conference: 'Watch out Labour'

Ukip's latest policy offering is designed to woo Ed Miliband's core voters

September 26, 2014
Ukip leader Nigel Farage delivers his key note speech during the Ukip annual conference at Doncaster racecourse in South Yorkshire.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage delivers his key note speech during the Ukip annual conference at Doncaster racecourse in South Yorkshire.

Speeches have been rattled out all day at Ukip conference at a rate of about four an hour, but it's not until a distinctive, plummy voice rings out over the PA that the crowd feels fevered. Finally the main act is here; Farage himself. A short video of his greatest hits (mainly Eurocrat-baiting speeches in Brussels), draws people in from the fringes until they're filling the aisles. Then he begins. This conference marks a crucial moment for his party. The European election campaign taught him that "there's only one thing more frightening in life than being behind, and that's being in front."

Ukip aren't in front for the general election in May, but they reckon they’re on course to potentially win—by unofficial estimates from one party source—between five and ten MPs. Even if you take that as overconfident, it’s unlikely that they won’t win any. Today, then, is all about showing the party can do more than steal voters from the Tories by shouting about Europe, and from Labour by shouting about the Westminster elite.

The conference takes place at Doncaster racecourse—the venue borders Ed Miliband's constituency—and to get there from London you need to ride on Britain's only high-profile public railway, the East Coast line. As statements of intent go, both to the media and the general public, it doesn't get more obvious. A big part of Ukip’s next push is Labour. Ukip are after Ed Miliband's core voters. They're after them in next month's Heywood and Middleton by-election, and at the general election next May.

Farage has said—and more junior party figures have parroted—that Labour should watch out for UKIP for ages now, but this conference is the first showcase of a policy offering which is targeted at Labour supporters. The NHS is set to be a key battleground, with Ed Miliband’s conference pledge to introduce 36,000 new frontline staff for the NHS still fesh in our memories. In a press conference after his speech, a relaxed, rose-swilling Farage said his party was going after Labour on this in part because they were genuinely affronted by Labour “lies” about Ukip wanting to privatise the NHS.

Earlier in the day Louise Bours, a Ukip MEP for North West England, thundered through a set of policies designed to let the People's Army run rampant through the corridors of Britain's hospitals and the offices of regulators. She pledged that under Ukip, NHS managers would be "judged by their successes and failures, not on their ability to avoid blame." Going after managers shows canny knowledge of the party's core supporters—a recent ComRes poll for Incisive Health found that 62 per cent of people over 65 see "too many managers" as the most important problem facing the NHS. But at the heart of this is a promise to introduce a qualification for managers. Just how the party plans to beat the bureaucrats by adding another layer of bureaucracy is unclear. Mid Staffs—the NHS trust criticised by a public inquiry for failings in care its staff committed under the last Labour government—was also mentioned, most notably in a speech by John Bickley, Ukip's candidate in Heywood and Middleton.

On the economy, two of Ukip’s big tax pledges—no income tax on the minimum wage and a new “luxury tax,”—a higher VAT rate on expensive goods like shoes over £200—are well pitched to attract lefties who’d like to see the rich get a bashing. At the same time, their new 35p top rate of tax—a notable advancement on the 40p they told us they were planning last month will appeal to the “squeezed middle” all of the parties want to get hold of. Interestingly, though, some of their less high profile economic policies seem to rely on the kind of dorky Whitehall insiders the party usually likes to have a go at. Economic spokesman Patrick O’Flynn says that the party would introduce a tax on the annual turnovers of large businesses, but only following a comprehensive review by treasury staff using “the best brains of that Whitehall department.”

The delegates aren’t as excited as I’ve seen Ukippers in the past. The only speeches that really get them going are Bours on the NHS and, of course, Nigel himself. Party members and supporters I talk to are pleased with what they’ve seen, but with caveats. Pat Bryant, the party’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for North Wiltshire, said she’s glad that Ukip are coming across as more professional, but hopes they don’t lose all of their foibles: “eccentricity is what makes this world joyous,” she says.

The party would probably say it would be unfair to start and finish this piece with Farage, but he remains the party’s best speaker and its public face—for better and worse. At his best, he makes you feel as if Ukip are going to drive Miliband’s flailing operation into the ground, and his biggest laugh comes when he begins his volley on economics by pantomiming an expression of forgetfulness before saying “oh yes, the defecit!” But his comments on the debate on air strikes against Isis going on at the same time in the Commons come off as churlish. At one point he insinuates that both the raising of the terror threat level last month and the timing of the vote are designed to steal the agenda back from Ukip. While Ukip certainly didn’t show themselves up today, their election success is still far from guaranteed.