Not content with inviting the press to a media reception in Doncaster and then making them pay for their own drinks, UKIP this afternoon dragged half of Her Majesty’s loyal press corp to Bristol only to disappoint them with a Thick of It-style non-announcement. Despite stoking rumours of another defection, in the end the press pack had to make do with Tory turncoat Arron Banks announcing he would be upping his donation to £1 million:

UKip need to go back and study expectations management 101. Lotta pissed off hacks oft this is it. — Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) October 1, 2014

Dear me. @UKIP better step out of bubble + re-assess tactics after inadvertently signalling that bandwagon has come to (well funded) halt — Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) October 1, 2014

I think Ukip could have press released that one. Ukip lost £1m of lobby goodwill dragging reporters from Brum to Bristol for a donation. — Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) October 1, 2014

Ukip should know better than to drag reporters exhausted from #indyref campaign and 2 conferences to a country manor to hear about a cheque — James Chapman (@jameschappers) October 1, 2014

Ukip are gonna get hounded in the press after dragging knackered journalists all the way to Bristol just to listen to a stroppy businessman — Matt Dathan (@matt_dathan) October 1, 2014

The hacks will be really p*ssed off at being taken to Bristol for that #ukip — Tim Montgomerie ن (@montie) October 1, 2014

Not enough to knock Dave off the News at Ten, though a million quid will pay for a lot of posters…