Ukip's message risks being drowned out by bad publicity

Sunday 25 January 2015 at 1:23pm

Carl Dinnen

Political Correspondent

Nigel Farage has been forced to fight numerous negative headlines since his party's ascent. Credit: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

There has been something of a Farage fightback today, with the Ukip leader forced to try to put out several PR fires.

He hit back at defector Amjad Bashir, saying he is not sure quite how long the MEP will last with alongside his new Conservative colleagues given his disciplinary record with Ukip.

Then there is the party secretary, Matthew Richardson, who is reported to have called Ukip the party for "bigots".

That has been laughed off by the party as pub banter, but the problem for the party is that this sort of coverage does drown out their message.

Today they were trying to launch a new policy; Nigel Farage's party wants to pledge £3 billion a year in extra money to the NHS by using money saved from leaving the EU.

However, their policies are not really being heard while they are fighting on all these fronts.