THE EUROPEAN Union will pay the UK Independence Party at least £1.5 million a year to set up a party base with the aim of “wrecking” the EU.
All 12 of the UKIP MEPs will visit Brussels next week and the alliances they make with other Eurosceptic groups could allow the party to benefit from more than £5 million of EU money annually for extra staff and resources, on top of the many administrative posts automatically provided by the European Parliament.
This windfall will make an enormous impact on the young party, enabling it to establish a Brussels base, recruit dozens of strategists and researchers and investigate EU waste and corruption.
European Parliament rules state that the allowances given to MEPs for staff and research can also be used to fight referendums on “European subjects”. This will allow the UKIP to channel some of it into its “no” campaign in the referendum on the European constitution, but probably not in the regional assembly campaign.
The UKIP will fund its new research unit by amassing its MEPs’ staffing allowances. Each MEP receives about £100,000 a year to employ staff, on top of £30,000 towards office costs and a generous travel allowance.
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The party accrues more benefits by being part of an official group in the Parliament, giving it about an extra £30,000 annually per MEP for research and publicity purposes.
“Amazingly, it doesn’t stop there,” said Jeffrey Titford, the leader of the UKIP in the European Parliament. “Certain other appointments are paid for by Parliament, depending on the make-up of the group.”
Since it was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 the party has generally used Mr Titford’s room as a base; now it will be able to rent office accommodation.
“There is a wonderful irony here,” Mr Titford said. “It gives us a tremendous boost that will give our candidates a lot more ammunition against the EU and develop the party as a whole.”
The 12 UKIP MEPs — nine of them, including Robert Kilroy-Silk, newly elected last week — will travel to Brussels to negotiate the final make-up of their Eurosceptic group. They hope to build a group of 40 Eurosceptic MEPs drawn from Poland, France and the Netherlands, who could pool their resources with the UKIP’s research group.
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Mr Titford said that despite the fact that the UKIP would be the largest Eurosceptic party in the European Parliament, it might still allow the Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde to lead the group.
He could share a joint-presidency with the UKIP because he had enormous experience of fighting the “no” referendum to the euro in Denmark and could help the UKIP in fighting the “no” campaign against the European constitution, Mr Titford said.
Speculation that Mr Kilroy-Silk would take over leadership of the party is being quashed by members of the UKIP’s old guard. On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme yesterday Mr Kilroy-Silk refused to say whether he wanted to be leader of the party.
However, Dick Morris, President Clinton’s former political adviser and the UKIP’s special consultant for its recent election campaign, moved firmly against the idea on Thursday night. On Question Time on BBC One Mr Morris — who was in London advising the party on its general election campaign — rebutted a question about Mr Kilroy-Silk by saying that he had “only been in the party for eight weeks”.
Mr Lott said that the position of Roger Knapman, the current leader, was unquestioned, while Mr Titford said that Mr Kilroy-Silk would attend plenary sessions and voting sessions of the Parliament but would not be more actively involved in committees.
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Paul Sykes, the Yorkshire shopping-centre tycoon, was appointed yesterday as director of the UKIP’s “no” campaign in the referendums to be held in October on regional assemblies for England.
The appointment was made at a meeting of the national executive in London to decide on a massive expansion and reorganisation of the party to fight a general election.
Mr Sykes is also tipped to become the new party chairman after his substantial financial support of the UKIP. His £1 million donation to its European election campaign played a crucial role in its gaining 16 per cent of the vote. His appointment guarantees cashflow for the three referendums on assemblies for the North West, North East, and Yorkshire, which are the UKIP’s next big project.
“Paul is absolutely delighted to take it on,” David Lott, the outgoing chairman, said. “He’s terribly concerned that these assemblies are just another way for Brussels to circumvent our national Government in Westminster.”