In December UKIP members received a letter from Ms Andreasen. In the letter she asked them to each donate £20 to UKIP’s EU (Nigel & Marta’s) election fund.
Nigel had great expectations and was confident that the letter would raise well over £250,000. Unfortunately, it only raised £58,000. Nigel’s dream of using the money to fund his re-election campaign shattered into a thousand pieces.
Contrast this with Trevor Colman’s personal fund raising letter to members. Although this appeal was confined to the South West it still managed to raise well over £30,000. This, together with other funds, means that UKIP South West is now well on the way to raising the £250,000 needed to fight a good election campaign. It is almost certain that Mr Colman will be returned as an MEP.
In contrast to this other regions are struggling to raise funds or even find activists willing to campaign. For instance, UKIP South East has just over £20,000 for the Euro elections. UKIP East Midlands has even less than that.
It is increasingly likely that Mr Colman will be the only UKIP MEP elected in June.
If Nigel fails to win a seat he intends to leave UKIP and seek pastures new. You can also expect a mass exodus of other well-known UKIPPERS if they fail to win seats. Bannerman, Nuttall, Arnott, Clark and Bloom spring to mind. Clearly the strength of their patriotism depends on how much money they will earn as MEPs or paid officials of UKIP.
From July Mr Colman may well see himself leading a UKIP that is largely based in the South West.
I have no idea what expectations Farage and Andreasen really had of this letter, and whether their expectations were realistic or not. However, I will say that I think getting 2,900 UKIP members to donate £20 each, on top of having already paid their membership fees, is actually a very good result. I congratulate all involved. I personally didnt donate to this appeal but I spent a few hundred on leaflets instead will you inculde that
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