“All bets are off, the whole thing’s up in the air.” So said Ukip leader Nigel Farage last November after his party won its second by-election in successive months.
In the warm glow of the two triumphs, which elected Ukip’s first two MPs to the Westminster parliament, party officials talked about claiming 20 seats, potentially leaving them as king-makers in the expected coalition negotiations.
With David Cameron having promised an ‘in/out’ referendum if he remained as prime minis...
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Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.