Discussion focuses on how to capitalise on the referendum victory and the crises splitting Labour and the Conservatives

At Ukip’s first conference since the EU referendum result, the mood was celebratory. “We got absolutely soaked as we came in, but at least it is British rain!” declared Neil Hamilton, Ukip’s leader in the Welsh assembly, to delighted applause from about 250 delegates.

In a triumphant speech urging Ukip to take on a new role monitoring the government’s willingness to deliver full Brexit, Hamilton said: “Any attempt to backslide on what the people voted for courts, I think, the possibility of armed revolution in this country.”

But there was recognition at the Ukip north-west summer conference in Liverpool that the party faced problems: its leadership deficit in the wake of Nigel Farage’s resignation, its shaky financial situation and its need to convince voters that it is not just a “one-trick pony” that has achieved its key goal.

Paul Nuttall, the deputy leader and an MEP, who had been expected to be a frontrunner in the leadership race, ruled himself out. “I will not be standing for the leadership. I would not wish that lifestyle on anyone,” he told the conference on Saturday.

He said he would continue to help the party to ensure Brexit was implemented. “Freedom of movement of people has to be a red line. We have made it perfectly clear in this referendum. I will tell you what, we will not accept if the Conservative party backslides, this party will go from strength to strength. I say to Theresa May: look out, we are coming after you in 2020,” he said.

“People voted en masse to take back control of our own borders. We will take back control. We will ensure that the right amount of workers come to this country.”

Ukip MEPs and members of the party’s national executive committee lined up to congratulate the army of leafleters and stallholders who had helped win the leave vote. “We won … you won! We got our country back and we are going to make sure that we never lose it again,” said Steven Woolfe, the party’s migration and financial affairs spokesman and another leadership contender.

He did not confirm whether he would stand, but in a speech that avoided any mention of migration, he called for the party to develop a positive message. “We will not turn our backs on those in the north and the Midlands who have been left behind by Labour,” he said. “Let us be the party of all people in the United Kingdom and let us be the party of light and not division.”

If he stands, Woolfe could face the party donor Arron Banks, who has indicated his interest, and the former deputy chair Suzanne Evans, who would like to stand but is currently suspended from the party.



Beyond the triumphalism, discussion focused on how the party should capitalise on the referendum victory and the crises splitting Labour and the Conservatives to secure further electoral successes in council elections and the next general election.

All the speakers highlighted the unique opportunity for Ukip to make inroads into the Labour vote in the north, where the party took second place in more than 30 constituencies in the 2015 election, compared with none in 2010.

“Ukip is the party that will stand up for hard-working, honest people. We will stand up for the people Labour ignores and the Conservatives despise. Ukip is coming for you Labour,” said Jonathan Arnott, an MEP for the north-east.

He called for the party to adopt a new, more professional style. The time for “shouting and screaming was over”, he said. “Today we have to be grownups, we have to negotiate Brexit. We are all diplomats now.”

There was some attempt to sketch out what post-Brexit policies Ukip may try to pursue, but this area remains ill-defined. A Ukip trade unionist leaflet distributed to all delegates said the party aimed to “offer all jobs to British workers first”, asking: “Isn’t it time we helped British workers? For too long British workers involved in traditional industries have been ignored and not treated with the respect they deserve.”

Another leaflet promised Ukip would work to reverse the decline of the great British pub. And at the back of the conference hall, one Ukip member had set up his own stall offering pamphlets on the perils of same-sex marriage, political correctness and immigration.

John Bickley, the party treasurer, said Ukip’s financial situation remained precarious. It was in “dire straits” in February, with a “black hole in our finances”. “We spent £5m running up to and including the general election; we over-committed ourselves. It has been pretty tough. We don’t have the unions like the Labour party, and unlike the Conservative party we don’t have the donors. We rely on you, the activists,” he said.

Anxious not to dampen the mood, he asked the audience to remind him what had happened two weeks ago. “We won!” delegates shouted. “Freedom!”

Joseph Thomas, from St Helen’s, Liverpool, who worked with people with learning disabilities until he lost his job when funding dried up, and who is currently working as a lollipop man, said he had joined Ukip a month before the referendum because “I didn’t like the way the country was going with regards to immigration, people’s rights, wage compression.”

His area had been a Labour stronghold since the 1970s, but things were changing, he said. “I think Ukip has a chance there. Labour has taken them for granted.”