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A string of high-profile hard-right ‘influencers’ have very publicly joined Ukip, sparking an influx of their young, largely alt-right followers into the party’s membership.

Last week, YouTube personalities Paul Joseph Watson, Sargon of Akkad, Count Dankula and former tech blogger Milo Yiannopoulos announced they were joining the ailing party.

And the party has welcomed their new members, who prefer to label themselves ‘classical liberals’ or ’radical centrists’ rather than ‘alt-right’.

What unites them is a fundamentalist, almost fanatical defence of ‘freedom of speech’.

In practice, that often means the freedom to say whatever they want and attack whomever they please, however they please to their enormous and engaged social media following, without consideration or consequence.

Ukip has welcomed them with open arms, and their arrival is likely to inject a new and different energy into the party, which has teetered on the brink of irrelevance since the Brexit referendum.

But could they make Ukip dangerous again?

How did this happen?

(Image: PA)

Party leader Gerard Batten signalled a shift in Ukip’s priorities earlier this year, by publicly supporting Tommy Robinson and speaking alongside the EDL founder at a ‘free speech’ march earlier this year.

As a former EDL member, Robinson, who is currently in prison, is banned from joining Ukip for life.

Who are the new faces?

Count Dankula

(Image: YouTube)

Earlier this month , Mark Meechan, better known as Count Dankula told his Twitter followers he would join Ukip if they retweeted him 10,000 times. They did and he did.

Meechan was successfully prosecuted for publishing a video in which he appeared to teach his girlfriend's pug to do a nazi salute every time he said 'gass the Jews'.

He is also a vocal supporter of Tommy Robinson.

Paul Joseph Watson

Watson was next.

He is ‘editor-at-large’ at conspiracy theory website InfoWars, which has repeatedly claimed the Sandy Hook massacre may have been faked by the government.

And he has regularly told “the truth about Islam” , complained about “social justice warriors” and immigration and made unfounded claims about Hillary Clinton’s health to the 875,000 followers on his @PrisonPlanet Twitter account.

Sargon of Akkad

(Image: YouTube)

Around the same time, Carl Benjamin, AKA Sargon of Akkad, paid his £30 membership fee.

Benjamin is a YouTube shouter, who has described Harvey Weinstein’s victims as “gold digging whores” and defended Elliot Rodger as a “poor f**king guy” who had "no option” but to murder six people because of feminism.

Milo Yiannopoulos

(Image: Getty Images AsiaPac)

And finally, Milo Yiannopoulos joined the gang.

Yiannopoulos is under fire today after telling a reporter he couldn’t wait for “vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down”, days before five people, including journalists were gunned down in a Maryland newsroom.

What happens next?

There followed "a spike" in membership - anywhere from 500 to a thousand in a few days, depending on who you ask.

While not Momentum numbers, it amounts to around a 5% bump in membership in a very short space of time.

Ukip sources say the new members are younger, angrier and more extreme in their defence of ‘free speech’ and libertarianism than the party has ever seen.

It’s unclear how seriously the new faces of Ukip are taking the move, which Watson joked was a ‘soft coup’, and Benjamin described as “both important and hilarious.”

But Ukip are taking it seriously, and can see the huge potential of the party’s average age reducing and a boost to party coffers from membership fees - not to mention a direct line to around 2 million social media followers.

One senior party figure told there were no plans to make Watson and friends party spokesmen, but suggested a comparison.

“Think of Paul Joseph Watson as Ukip’s version of Owen Jones,” he said.

He added: “There are risks of course, but better risk than irrelevance.”

Moving forward, two events loom large on Ukip’s calendar in the next few months.

In August, Ukip will hold elections for their National Executive Committee - the body which sets party rules and policy.

And the following month, the party is planning their annual conference in Birmingham - which Watson has already started promoting on his Twitter account.

While the annual gathering is generally a fairly tame and elderly affair, an invasion of young, angry free speech fundamentalists could change its character - particularly if Watson, Benjamin, Yiannopoulos or Meechan are given a platform to speak.