The tweets below tell the story so far – a UKIP candidate was selected last night for their target seat of Boston & Skegness, but we don’t know who it is yet. But it is not former Conservative MP and now UKIP Deputy Chairman, Neil Hamilton.
In their book, ‘Revolt on the Right’, Rob Ford (@RobFordMancs) of Mancheser University and Matthew Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) of Nottingham University identified Boston & Skegness as the second most demographically “UKIP-friendly” Conservative seat in the country. In October, the Boston Standard reported on a Survation poll (595 respondents), commissioned by UKIP, that put the party on 46 per cent, with the Conservatives on 26, Labour 21 and the Lib Dems on two per cent with ‘others’ on six. Another study has shown that Boston & Skegness also has the most negative opinion of immigration. Unsurprisingly it was named as one of UKIP’s top 12 target seats by Sky News.
The Conservatives selected Matt Warman as their PPC in late October, after Mark Simmonds, who has represented the constituency since 2001, announced his retirement at the next election.
UPDATE: The Boston Target and other local papers are reporting that the chosen candidate is believed to have local connections with the constituency and took 85 per cent of the vote. UKIP say they cannot reveal who the candidate is until it has been agreed by the party’s National Executive Committee. Also added that Neil Hamilton is a Deputy Chairman of UKIP.
