UKIP unveils a fully costed manifesto

Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage

UKIP’s manifesto contains “serious, fully-costed policies”, party leader Nigel Farage has said ahead of its launch.

The party’s proposals include an extra £12bn for the NHS, a commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence and a five-year ban on unskilled immigration reports BBC.

UKIP, which wants to quit the EU, would hold an in/out referendum “as soon as possible” in the next Parliament.

The Conservatives said there was a “£37bn black hole” in UKIP’s proposals.

Last year Mr Farage described the party’s 2010 general election manifesto, drawn up when he was not the UKIP leader, as “drivel”.

But he said the 2015 version would be for people “who “believe in Britain”.

He had the final say on it and there are some things he wanted in it which didn’t make it, but the manifesto which Nigel Farage will hold aloft at an Essex hotel is the most important document in his political life.

It represents a moment when UKIP is on the brink. The brink of breaking through. Or the brink of massively disappointing.

For UKIP devotees it will be an exercise in legitimacy mixed with irrelevance.

They don’t like the party for its broad range of policies. For the media and the other parties the test will be does it add up, and make sense.

But crucially, for those thinking they may go over to UKIP in three weeks’ time, it will be important for one reason.

Nigel Farage will likely feature on or very near the front page and he either is or embodies all that they like about the party.