As the elections to the European Parliament draw ever closer, UKIP, who most predict will do extremely well in the elections, are under unprecedented scrutiny from all sides. Welcomed by their opponents, it was inevitable that over the campaign period, they would be attacked from every angle.

There have been claims Nigel Farage abused EU expenses, that their election campaign posters are racist and that they are hypocritical for saying Europeans are taking British jobs.

Whether the posters are racist remains to be seen, however, they are clearly xenophobic and scaremongering. They are also certainly hypocritical in that they suggest British jobs are under threat due to demand from Europe, when Nigel farage’s own secretary (and wife) is German.

UKIP are also having to contend with a rebel Eurosceptic party ‘An Independence From Europe’, which they claim have a similar name and are attempting to confuse voters by appearing on the top of the ballot paper.

Most recently UKIP have been criticised when 6 of their MEPs voted against a resolution to tackle the world ivory trade. This was widely condemned and it remains to be seen if those MEPs were in fact closet ivory enthusiasts or whether they were against any vote that would expand European legislative power.

Whilst welcomed by many, this scrutiny could in fact be counter productive. Writing in the Guardian, Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin discuss how it is dangerous to dismiss the fears of a large section of the electorate. As 70% of voters told YouGov that people with low education and skills who are looking for low-paid work should not be allowed into Britain, dismissing seven out of every 10 voters as racist is not a good tactic. They also look at how UKIP have fine-tuned their response to attacks and how their ‘populist counter-attack strategy is very effective, not least because core UKIP voters already share extremely negative views about British mainstream politics’. The whole article can be found here.

It therefore remains to be seen if increased attacks on UKIP are of help or hindrance to their campaign. I suspect Farage is happy to be the butt of the jokes, as was seen on Have I got News for You a couple of weeks ago, if it means increased exposure for him and his party.