Farage's Tax Dodging: One UKIP Voter's View

They certainly played a blinder. The Daily Mirror's exposure of Nigel Farage as a would-be tax cheat was something of a hoot, especially, when attempting to clarify his involvement in an offshore tax vehicle, NF said he "was not rich enough to need one". That's alright then, Nige.

As it happens, a million miles away from NF's gilded 'man-of-the-people' existence, a team of Labour canvassers were out in Baddeley Green in Stoke-on-Trent. If you're not familiar with it, and to be honest, Stoke's districts are hardly the stuff of popular cultural knowledge; this is ever so slightly better off than most parts of town. The ward of which it is part returned a Tory councillor in 2011, for instance. So yes, this is one of the few places in Stoke where you can reasonably expect to find Conservative voters. And we did - not as many as Labour, but they're there.

I had one of those Tory voters. Or should I say ex-Tory voter. She hadn't supported Labour for well over 20 years, and felt bitterly let down by David Cameron. It was for the usual reactionary reasons the Tory right fret about - too many people on benefits, too many brown faces, too many concessions to liberalism. And, as such, she was now a UKIP switcher.

Here comes the interesting bit. After she had vented I happened to mention Farage's tax trouble. She'd read about it, but her demeanour visibly shifted. A look of disappointment fell over her face and she murmured that she was "very disappointed" and would be "thinking very carefully" about voting UKIP again.

One swallow doesn't make a spring. But if you're the squeaky clean anti-establishment party, don't be surprised if acting like the very worst money-grubbing tax cheats invites opprobrium and electoral disaster.