UKIP failed to articulate purpose in election, Hamilton says

Neil Hamilton

UKIP failed to articulate its purpose in a post-Brexit Britain at the general election, assembly group leader Neil Hamilton has said.

The party's vote share in Wales fell by 11.6% from 2015 in the 8 June poll.

At the last general election UKIP came third in the overall vote - but this year it came fifth.

Mr Hamilton, who is AM for Mid and West Wales, said UKIP would show the rest of the UK what the party was for through its work in the Welsh assembly.

"What we need to do is, what we didn't manage to achieve in the general election, to show people what UKIP's purpose is in a post-Brexit Britain," said Mr Hamilton at a press conference.

"I think one of the main reasons why our vote collapsed in the general election, apart from the Brexit argument that the prime minister needed to have the maximum vote in order to get the Brexit negotiations through, is that we failed to articulate what UKIP's overriding purpose in British politics is to the future," he said.

"That's what we're going to focus our attention on here in Wales because after 2019, UKIP, like other parties, won't have any MEPs.

"Although we've got two members of the London Assembly, it will be through the National Assembly for Wales that UKIP is able to show the rest of the UK what UKIP is for."