UKIP Chairman Ben Walker’s social media accounts are unusually quiet today – perhaps that’s because he has just led the party into possibly the most embarrassing and humiliating election performance in its history.
Standing as a candidate for a seat on Stroud District Council, yesterday, Ben polled a total of just FIVE votes. Yes, FIVE. Which came to around 0.3% of the votes cast. The seat was won by the Green Party.
The contest, in Severn Ward of Stroud DC was caused by the death of a sitting Labour councillor. Ben, who lives in the ward next door and has served as a parish councillor in the area, really fancied his chances of at least making an impact, and possibly winning the seat.
Well, he has certainly made an impact. In fact, he may have made UKIP history.
We believe that this is the lowest vote achieved by any UKIP candidate since the party’s inception in 1993.
Short shrift
We have no idea how much, if at all, Searchlight’s recent series of public information pieces on social media about Ben’s life and crimes will have figured in this result. We get the impression that they were being fairly widely shared on Facebook in the locality.
But, however it came to pass, the voters of Severn Ward certainly got the measure of the ‘Rogue Builder’ and gave him short shrift.
In any other party such humiliation and lack of leadership would inevitably lead to the candidate in question considering their position as leader.
In this case, don’t hold your breath. Ben has far too much riding on UKIP’s continued existence.
