Andy McSmith's Election Diary: Ukip's cash cow keeps on giving

Nigel Farage has claimed the BBC is anti-Ukip because “it received €30m in funding in the past seven years.”

I can understand Ukip demanding a police investigation after a contestant on Have I Got News For You claimed to have visited South Thanet more often than Nigel Farage. It’s been a long campaign, Ukip’s vote is ebbing away; it’s time for a sense of humour breakdown.

But I am puzzled by Nigel Farage’s claim, reported in the Daily Mail, that the BBC is anti-Ukip because “it received €30m in funding in the past seven years.”

Point one: the BBC’s output is not subsidised by the EU. The subsidy goes to BBC Media Action, formerly the BBC World Service Trust, a charity which helps promote human rights and internet access.

Point two: hark who’s talking. Ukip has 22 MEPs, whose combined salary, before tax, is more than €2m a year. On top of that come all the perks – the pension contributions, free first-class travel, the office costs, and the €300 a day – roughly €30,000 a year – attendance allowance.

Nearly €52,000 a year is paid automatically into an MEP’s account, with no need for them to explain how it is spent. It is called a “general expenditure allowance”. MEPs are about to award themselves an increased staffing budget of €275,000 a year.

That means that what it costs the European taxpayer to maintain 22 Ukip MEPs in the manner to which they have become accustomed is way more than €10m a year, far higher than the subsidy to the BBC’s charity.

The figure would be higher still if you counted Janice Atkinson, who was elected to the Brussels parliament on a Ukip ticket, but was expelled after her chief of staff was caught engaging in creative ways to extract yet more money from the great EU cash cow.

---

Are you undecided about who to vote for on 7 May? Are you confused about what the parties stand for and what they are offering? Take this interactive quiz to help you decide who to vote for...

Click here to launch

---

What goes up also comes down

Nicola Sturgeon is riding a wave of popularity, with an approval rating of +33, according to the market researchers TNS. A politician’s approval rating, by the way, is measured by taking the percentage of voters who think he/she is doing a good job and subtracting the percentage who think the opposite. The result is usually a minus.

I don’t want to rain on the party, but others have been there. In 2010, Nick Clegg achieved a rating of +44, inspiring a headline that said he was “nearly as popular as Churchill”. By June last year, he had hit -65. Public approval is a fickle thing.

Quote of the day

“We had Pizza Hut tweeting pizzas with ‘Ed Balls’ written on them, you had Coca-Cola bottles with ‘Ed Balls’ written on them... somebody said on Twitter: ‘Dear me, I think Ed Balls Day is getting so commercial. We’ve got to get back to its true meaning!’”

Yvette Cooper looks back on the internet fad that is Ed Balls Day

Support actually

If Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, loses his Inverness seat to the SNP – as he well might – it won’t be Hugh Grant’s fault. The actor who played a dippy prime minister in Love Actually has posted an opinion online: “Dear People of Inverness (incl my friends and relations), I know Danny Alexander and think you’re very lucky to have him. Just an opinion.”

Though born and raised in England, Grant has Scottish blood coursing through his veins. His ancestors include the Ist Marquess of Atholl.

Lisa’s labour

Congratulations to Lisa Nandy, who is standing for re-election as Labour MP for Wigan, on the birth of her son, Otis. At least somebody has delivered, instead of keeping royal reporters and photographers waiting, day after day.