Is UKIP’s treasurer, spread-betting billionaire Stuart Wheeler, getting cold feet about bankrolling the party?
Last night he was in the front row at the LSE. Speaking on stage were Vernon Bogdanor, David Cameron’s old tutor at Oxford, and Mats Persson, director of Open Europe, chewing over the perennial question of the EU. But before Wheeler could get comfortable in his seat he was engaged in conversation by another audience member who was reading the Financial Times’s forensic report on Ukip in yesterday’s paper. The piece noted that leader Nigel Farage only managed to attend one out of 42 Fisheries Committee meetings and, more broadly, Ukip’s lack of engagement. This despite the party claiming £800,000 in expenses.
“Have you seen this?” the FT reader asked Wheeler. “Oh dear, I’d better,” he replied. “Should I hang my head in shame?”
“Well, you are bankrolling the outfit,” pointed out the reader. “I just wanted to make sure you were getting plenty of bangs for your buck.”
