Ukip Policy Chief Tim Aker Forced To Resign For Failing To Come Up With Policy Manifesto
Just When It Couldn't Get Any Worse For Ukip's Policy Manifesto...
Asa Bennett— The Huffington Post UK
|
Ukip's policy chief has been forced to resign after reportedly failing to finish the party's election manifesto on time.
Tim Aker, feted as a rising star in the party, was supposed to have completed the policy platform on which candidates would stand on at the general election by the beginning of January, so it could be reviewed and costed by an independent think-tank.
However, concern quickly mounted among senior Ukip figures that Aker was failing to complete a final draft of the manifesto, according to the Times, with some fearing it will not be ready for the party's spring conference in Margate.
Open Image Modal
Ukip's outgoing policy chief Tim Aker
A senior Ukip insider fumed: “There was growing disquiet that none of us had seen hide nor hair on the policy front. It was especially annoying for candidates, who are banned from making any specific pledges before the manifesto is published. They don’t know what to tell voters on the doorstep.”
Others were also irritated at Aker's "selfish" focus on his successful bid to become an MEP for the eastern region of England last May, and his bid to become MP for Thurrock this May, instead of finishing the party's manifesto.
Aker's failure to finish Ukip's policy platform comes as a blow for party leader Nigel Farage, who has promised an improvement on the 2010 manifesto, which he mocked as "drivel".
Speaking to LBC last year, Farage said he hadn't read his party's 2010 manifesto, adding that the "idiot" who wrote it had since left to join the Tories, in a swipe at Tory MEP David Campbell-Bannerman, who was head of policy and deputy leader until he left in 2011.
Ironically Aker used to advise Campbell-Bannerman and served on his policy team at the time he was responsible for the manifesto now since called "drivel" by his party leader.
Aker previously hinted at the problems the party was having forming a final manifesto after quipping to Prospect Magazine in August that he looked into the issue of public sector pensions, but "got very scared and ran away”.
Following Aker's departure, Ukip's deputy chairwoman Suzanne Evans has been parachuted in to finish the manifesto in time.
“Tim Aker was responsible for running our policy programme, but as an MEP, borough councillor and PPC [prospective parliamentary candidate] for the target seat of Thurrock, he stepped down from the role of policy chief,” she told the Times.
“I relish the task of putting together the final details and presenting a sensible, radical and fully costed manifesto at our spring conference in Margate.”
Ukip also robustly denied suggestions that Aker had been sacked. A spokesman told HuffPost UK: "Tim Aker was not fired. He stood down after winning the a seat on Thurrock Borough Council, to go with being an MEP and the leading candidate to oust the Tories from the Thurrock Westminster seat.
"Suzanne Evans, UKIP's Deputy Chairman was appointed to take over the role."
10 Highlights From Ukip's 2010 'Drivel' Manifesto
10 Policies You Had Forgotten Ukip Had Made
Taxi drivers must wear uniforms(01 of10)
Open Image Modal
For those who see a black cab with an illuminated sign saying 'TAXI' on it - and aren't sure whether it's a taxi - Ukip had you covered. When Andrew Neill put this to Farage on The Daily Politics in January, saying: "You favour a compulsory dress code for taxi drivers". Farage said: "Do we?" The policy didn't actually make it into the 16-page manifesto but was mooted by a "discussion group" that fed into Ukip policies, then policy chief David Campbell Bannerman told HuffPost UK. (credit:Anthony Devlin/PA Archive)
Ban the burkha! (Well, in some places)(02 of10)
Open Image Modal
In the section about 'Restoring Britishness', the manifesto pledged to "tackle Islamic extremism" by banning the wearing of the burkha or veiled niqab in public buildings and "certain private" ones. "Ukip opposes multiculturalism and political correctness - aiming to create a single British culture embracing all religions and cultures," it said. (credit:Anthony Devlin/PA Archive)
Shield our children from Al Gore's 'propaganda' (03 of10)
Open Image Modal
Eurosceptics and climate change sceptics appear to go hand in hand - Ukip say they wanted to abolish the Climate Change Act and ban Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth from our schools, calling it "global warming propaganda". It also pledged to stop funding the UN panel on climate change and fund the Met Office "according to forecast accuracy". But they did have a green side... (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Get us all to drive electric cars(04 of10)
Open Image Modal
The manifesto said it would "incentivise and support" the use of electric road vehicles. (credit:John Walton/PA Archive)
A 'proper' Treason Act(05 of10)
Open Image Modal
Yeah, that's right - a "proper" one. Suck it, traitors. The act would be to prosecute British citizens found guilty of attacks on "the British people or armed forces". Beyond that, there isn't much detail. (credit:Alastair Grant/PA Wire)
Boot camps for young offenders(06 of10)
Open Image Modal
Young people consistently in trouble with the law were to be sent to "boot camp" to stop them "spiraling into a life of crime". Ominously, that is all the manifesto has to say on the subject. It also pledged to double the number of prison places, presumably in case the camps didn't work. (credit:Jeff Moore)
Safeguard British measurements(07 of10)
Open Image Modal
Farage wasn't Ukip leader at the time of the 2010 general election but we detect his fingerprints on this. His party pledged to "safeguard" imperial measurements like the pint and the mile from being "undermined" by Brussels. So, Farage won't have to order "half a litre of ale," (or worse, lager) any time soon. (credit:Steve Parsons/PA Wire)
Triple the size of the border staff(08 of10)
Open Image Modal
The Border Agency needed to be tripled in size to around 30,000 employees, in order to enforce Ukip's proposed new requirement that every non-UK citizen's entry and exit to the country be recorded. (credit:Steve Parsons/PA Wire)
Return to grants for students(09 of10)
Open Image Modal
University students are an unlikely target demographic for the eurosceptic party. Nonetheless, they said they would return to the old student grant system and scrap students loans which are leaving them in "heavy debt" If only those thousands of students who voted for the Lib Dems had known... (credit:Johnny Green/PA Wire)
'English-only' days at parliament(10 of10)
Open Image Modal
Bloody Scots, coming down here, taking up their duly elected places in the House of Commons. On "English-only" days, the MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would be required to go home and perform the devolved duties of the regional assemblies - whose existing members they would replace. (credit:Steve Parsons/PA Wire)