UKIP is dead, long live UKIP

The 2017 local elections have come around and the broad consensus is that it was a disaster for UKIP who now have virtually no representation at any level of government in Britain. After losing their only MP, their leader failing to get elected in a heavily Brexit area, the party plunging in the polls, it seems the final blow has been delivered as they lose 145 local council seats.

To summarise their position; UKIP are now polling at 5-7%, have no MPs, no representation in Scottish Parliament, only 5 seats in Wales Assembly and a grand total of 1.7% of local council seats.

But where have all these voters gone? Have they suddenly seen the error of their ways and realised that UKIP were vile all along? If only.

The reality is that UKIP is only dead in terms of its political party. Its policies and values, however, are more alive and powerful than ever. Voters have left UKIP because the Conservative Party is now offering essentially the same thing. The local elections have shown a near perfect mirror between UKIP's losses and the Conservative's victories.

In seeking to stop themselves being outflanked from the right, the Conservatives have moved further and further right until the differences between them and UKIP became essentially meaningless. Faced with a national government party and a minor one that held essentially the same values, voters switched to the big party.

While trying to defend the idea that UKIP still has a national relevance in the context of this Conservative Party, even their spokesman, Peter Reeve, phrases it in these terms: 'The reality is... the Conservative Party have painted themselves in UKIP colours, flying a UKIP flag'.

The added bonus for the Conservatives is that so far their moderate base is so loyal to the party that they are not losing any meaningful number of centre-right voters.

In 2017 therefore, as the general election approaches, UKIP the party may be gone but in spirit they live on through a Conservative Party that is just as willing to be anti-Europe, hostile to foreigners, hardline on arbitrary immigration targets and to present a politics of exclusionary nationalism.

Certainly, UKIP have lost seats, but in exchange they've won the soul of the government.