Ukip lost an election for the most hilarious reason

In 2016 the British National Party managed to miss the political party registration deadline, and were temporarily voided from existence.

Their successor party in much of the coal belt of midland and north west England, Ukip, has suffered a similar fate.

In Haverhill, Cambridgeshire Ukip lost an election to Labour because they spelled 'Ukip' wrong on their registration.

Hoping to win a by-election to the Haverhill Town Council, Ukip were disqualified due to a discrepancy on their forms.

The party had opted to use their acronym 'Ukip' instead of the full title of the UK Independence Party.

Due to strict Electoral Commission rules they were disqualified, meaning Labour's Liz Smith won by default.

According to Bury St Edmundsbury Borough Council (one tier up from Haverhill Town Council),

The description on the nomination paper did not match the one on the certificate of nomination

The defeat over something so stupid follows more bad news for Ukip locally, as the number of people willing to stand for the party has plummeted after Brexit.

Figures compiled by the Huffington Post found that Ukip is contesting significantly fewer wards at county and unitary authority level, based on the candidate nomination papers.

Maybe the acronym mistake is the cause of all of this.

HT Political Scrapbook

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