For a party in the middle of a general election campaign, UKIP is in a state of some disarray, with reports of an exodus of members outraged at recent revelations.

Although its website continues to insist that Lois Perry is party leader 2024-2028, this is of course complete nonsense. Perry quit several days ago.

The Kippers may be hoping to get away with pretending that they have been too busy to update the website recently, but that really won’t wash. Before the resignation, Lois was prominently addressing members about what was coming during her reign.

 Now all of that gush has vanished. Instead, readers can discover the views of the Perry-appointed deputy leader, Nick Tenconi, on any number of subjects.

The NEC is supposed to declare an interim leader on occasions when the leadership is vacant, but there’s no sign that they have done so. So Tenconi continues as deputy to a leader who doesn’t exist.

Flawed thinking

There’s a glaring logical flaw there somewhere but, hey, this is UKIP.

The party’s inactivity in naming an interim leader, or opening nominations for fresh elections for a new permanent leader, is probably partly explained by it being a bit short-handed right now. Even ignoring Perry’s debacle, UKIP Ltd has lost three directors in the last seven weeks and named no new ones.

And there’s no sign that this tail-turning trio – Anne Marie Waters, Julie Carter and Sqn Ldr Peter Richardson – have even been replaced on the NEC (the appointment of directors always lags behind that).

The party currently has no named Secretary, no Northern Ireland spokesman, no Justice, Abuse & Exploitation, Equality & Disability spokesman, and no Defence & Veterans spokesman. Not forgetting that the position of Patrons Co-ordinator is not so much empty as being squatted – under-fire chairman Ben Walker ‘temporarily’ has his thumb in that plum.

There would normally be 16 active people on the UKIP NEC – 12 elected members, party leader and chairman, and two appointees. The party are currently only identifying nine elected executives and four ex-officio members, who are Walker, Tenconi, Perry (!) and honorary president Neil Hamilton (jokingly described as one party wag as ‘always contactable by Ouija board’).

It’s probably as much as that committee can cope with to supervise the party’s general election defeats in 23 constituencies.

With Lois Perry widely predicted to be heading for Reform, former deputy leader Rebecca Jane tearing lumps out of Ben Walker in Searchlight, and defeated leadership candidate Bill Etheridge handing out some stick on streaming media, it’s no surprise that we are hearing reports that UKIP members are leaving in droves and that even whole branches are teetering on the brink. Oops!