Ukip membership has gone up by 15% since Theresa May’s Brexit plan was published The party has talked more about Islam and Tommy Robinson in recent months than Brexit.

Ukip has seen a rise in its membership since Theresa May published her controversial White Paper for Britain’s exit from the EU.

The Guardian reported that 3,200 new members joined in July, an increase of 15 per cent, which they believe is due to Conservatives defecting.

The party has also seen a boost from two per cent to five per cent in the polls, much higher than the 1.8 per cent it achieved at the 2017 general election.

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The bump in membership could see a battle for control of the party after its current leader, Gerard Batten, sided with Tommy Robinson and welcomed support from alt-right social media figures.

Islam and Brexit

Batten has referred to Islam as a “death cult” since taking over as leader in February, and called the Prophet Muhammad a paedophile.

In a move towards closer links with the far-right, Batten defended EDL founder Tommy Robinson and compared his imprisonment for contempt of court with the struggles of Ghandi and Mandela.

He described Robinson as being “on the right side of a great cause in a struggle between good and evil”.

Ukip has also recently welcomed right-wing and far-right YouTubers, including Paul Joseph Watson, who works for a US website that claimed the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax involving child actors, and Markus Meechan, who was fined for posting a video in which he repeatedly said “gas the jews” to a pug.

The shift in focus has frustrated some Ukip activists and grandees, who say the party should be focusing on Brexit as disquiet grows within the Conservative Party.

Return to mainstream

The spike in membership still puts the party’s popularity a long way behind the highs it achieved under Nigel Farage.

Its membership currently stands at around 24,000, almost half the 46,000 members it had in mid-2015.

Former leader Farage, who still sits as Ukip MEP and presents a weeknightly radio show on LBC, has said he will return to frontline politics if the UK does not pursue a so-called hard Brexit.