An Independence From Europe may be self financed

In the early hours of this morning I broke the story of An Independence From Europe, a party set up with the sole aim of doing over UKIP at next month's European elections. At the time I assumed that it was being funded by the Tories, but information just in suggests that this may not be the case.

A well placed source in the West Midlands UKIP area reminded me that Mike Nattrass MEP, who founded this outfit was actually a well known and popular figure in UKIP, and was widely expected to top the party's list for the West Midlands. Nigel Farage intervened and Natrrass fell at the first hurdle when he failed to even make the UKIP list of approved candidates. 

The source went on the say that Mike Nattrass is paying the deposit for his region out of his own pocket, and that  the people who wish to head the list in the other eight English regions have all agreed to pay the £5,000 deposit as a condition of taking the top spot. All of them are former members of UKIP who have fallen out with Farage, and they are all wealthy people who regard £5,000 as "pocket change," according to my source.

Since the simplest explanations are usually the correct ones, this version of events sounds the likeliest to me; a bunch of wealthy ex-Kippers who want revenge against the senior leadership and are willing to stump up their own money to ensure that UKIP takes a hit. 

We are still no neared finding out who was responsible for the smear letter, which my Brummie source tells me is circulating widely in that region as well, but given that the letters were posted in Birmingham - and given that the city is the centre for An Independence From Europe - it is possible that the membership list was leaked from that region.