AHC: Prime Minister Nigel Farage

The challenge is to make Nigel FArage Prime Minister of the UK with UKIP. Bonus points if Robert Kilroy Silk is deputy prime minister.
 
The challenge is to make Nigel FArage Prime Minister of the UK with UKIP. Bonus points if Robert Kilroy Silk is deputy prime minister.

In 1994, instead of founding the Referendum Party Sir James Goldsmith and his money join the newly founded (in 1993) UKIP and he swiftly deposes the party's founder Alan Sked, who leaves in a huff. Goldsmith is a lively and vigorous campaigner, and in the 1997 General Election UKIP come fourth with almost a million votes (about 3% of the total - note OTL the Referendum Party got 2.6% of the vote and UKIP got 0.3%, I've basically combined these figures but not changed much else).

In the aftermath of the defeat, Ken Clarke runs for and wins leadership of the Conservative Party (probably by avoiding the alliance with John Redwood that brought so much derision down on his head, perhaps also someone persuades Mrs Thatcher not to endorse a rival). Eurosceptics in the Conservative party loathe this, and any honeymoon Clarke gets is abruptly ended when the Conservatives narrowly lose the Uxbridge by-election at the end of July. Clarke blames a modest surge in the UKIP vote for the defeat and says it was a sympathy vote after Goldsmith's death only a couple of weeks before polling day, but the right of the party pins the blame squarely on Clarke (OTL the Conservatives won Uxbridge by about 4,000 votes and it played a small but useful role in bedding down William Hague's leadership of the party, this has been denied to Clarke).

Clarke never truly gets a chance to assert control of the Conservative Party, and the crisis comes to a head in the run-up to the 1999 European parliament election when Clarke attempts to impose a pro-European manifesto on the party. A dozen MPs on the right of the party refuse to endorse the manifesto and call on Conservative supporters to "vote their consciences" - this is seen as a thinly disguised endorsement of UKIP and all twelve subsequently have the whips withdrawn, with all but two subsequently defecting to UKIP, giving it it's first parliamentary representation. The subsequent election is a disappointment for the Conservatives, who come second behind Labour, though Clarke claims vindication from the fact the Conservatives won twice as many votes and seats as UKIP, who came third (OTL the Conservatives won and UKIP came fourth). Leader of the 12 strong UKIP group in the EU parliament is a sprightly former investment banker called Nigel Farage.

The run up to the 2001 election is a nightmare for the Conservatives as Clarke's attempts to drive the Eurosceptics to the margins of the party result in civil war and more defections to UKIP, with UKIP going into the election with 25 MPs. The election is a disaster for the Conservatives, slupming to just 120 MPs with Labour increasing to 450MPs and UKIP holding 15. Clarke resigns after the election, and the new Conservative leader, Ian Duncan Smith, wins by campaigning on a platform of "bringing the UKIP voters home".

This just unleashes another round of civil war in the Conservative Party, culminating in the defection of Ken Clarke and half a dozen of his closest allies to the Liberal Democrats in the run up to the 2004 European election. The 2004 election is a spectacular success for UKIP, who for the first time win a national election and who begin to openly talk about displacing the Conservatives as the major party of the right in Britain.

IDS is forced out of the leadership after the European failure by a group of MPs around Michael Portillo, who say that the Conservatives cannot, and indeed should not, compete with UKIP for the hard line Eurosceptic vote. Another round of civil war, defections, and purges means the 2005 general election will be the last the Conservatives contest as a national party. Labour are comfortably returned to power but another slump for the Conservatives and strong performances by both UKIP and the Liberal Democrats (at Labours expense, the Iraq war still happens in this TL) sees the LDs take over as the official opposition.

For once, the main action this parliament is inside the Labour Party, as Gordon Brown attempts to make his move to displace Blair as leader. The process is longer and bloodier than OTL - there are more Labour MPs who need to be persuaded that Blair has to go - and Brown only takes over on the eve of the financial crash in 2008. This, combined with the expenses scandals, is a perfect storm for Labour as Brown is quickly revealed to be out of his depth and the Blairites are out for revenge. Labour's poll ratings plummet as Brown increasingly desperately hangs on, a job not made easier by the 2009 European parliament elections, which are a triumph for UKIP, who win almost 40% of the votes and seats.

In the meantime, the Conservative Party has reached a peace of exhaustion under it's new leader, William Hague. The party's 90 or so MPs are all eurosceptic to various degrees, with a great deal of overlap of views with UKIP's 60 or so. Hague meets with the new UKIP leader, Nigel Farage (who entered the Commons in a by election a couple of years previously) and agree an electoral pact whereby the two parties will campaign on a joint manifesto and stand aside for each other. They jointly agree that if the Alliance For Britain (as their joint grouping is called) wins the election then the leader of the largest party will be Prime Minister with the other as his deputy.

This unity (for once) on the right of UK politics coincides with an outbreak of civil war on the left, as the Blairites make their move on Brown at the peak of the financial crisis. Brown hangs on by his fingernails, but Labour unity is permanently broken. The 2010 election sees Labour's support halved, although with 210 MPs they are still the largest party. UKIP however have come second with 195 MPs and thanks to the Conservatives staging a modest recovery to 130 MPs are just able to form a coalition government with the Conservatives with Farage as Prime Minister and Hague as his deputy.

(Sorry, couldn't get Kilroy-Silk in:))
 
Last edited:
If Jemima still converts to Islam and marries Khan, what does that do to the party in this scenario? Does it make the party more acceptable because theyre clearly not just a bunch of racist idiots - or does it destroy the party because the rascist idiots leave? Or does that demographic accept Khan, because hes an international cricket star?
 
Top