Outspoken TV star Katie Hopkins has revealed plans to pursue a new career in politics, expressing hopes to campaign alongside Ukip leader Nigel Farage in the European Referendum campaign. Although she is a conservative at heart, Ms Hopkins believes that Britain would be better off outside the EU – and that Ukip is the party to lead the Brexit charge.
Speaking to the Daily Star Sunday, Ms Hopkins said: “I’d like to be useful for UKIP during the referendum campaign, yes. We should leave the union, definitely. And I’d like to help them with that.
“My only issue with UKIP is in a general election they shouldn’t split the Tory vote. But for the referendum they’re going to be brilliant. That will be their moment.”
“As a party UKIP is not small minded, that’s just how they were portrayed on the BBC.”
Earlier this year Farage backed Hopkins when she was branded a racist for a series of tweets about Ebola. When the police threatened to investigate, the Ukip leader called on them to ignore the matter, saying that a probe into her comments would be a “waste of time”.
Hopkins rose to fame through the reality TV show The Apprentice. Since then she has gone on to make a name for herself as someone willing to say the things that other people think but won’t give voice to. In a program aired at the end of last year she gained, then lost three stone in a bid to prove that the secret to losing weight is simple: eat less and move more.
“A fat belly is not an attractive thing, fat people aren’t sexy,” she told The Sun at the time.
She made her first foray into politics in 2009, standing as an independent candidate in the European elections and gaining almost 9,000 votes. But although she now hopes to move into mainstream politics as a Conservative member of Parliament, she has voiced doubts over whether the party would welcome her.
“I’d love to get into politics. But I appreciate no political party would ever have me. I’m a Conservative at heart. But would they have me?,” she said.
“I see myself as a conviction politician. I see myself as coming from the old school where it wasn’t about being liked and having the right answer on Question Time.
“It was about having the courage of your conviction and withstanding miners’ strikes and all that good stuff.
“But I also recognise I’d never do what I was told to do or say what I was told to say. So I’d be really rubbish. But I’d really like to do it.”
Any party willing to take a chance on her may find that they have an asset, as she has revealed that much of her fan base is made up of young people – a demographic that both Ukip and the Conservatives have struggled to connect with.
“Most of my support is from young people,” she said. “I have 16-year-olds who like to speak out and always say what they think and not give a s*** if people hate them.
“Young people need that kind of role model. Because who else have they got?
“We live in a society where we’re supposed to think in a certain way. There’s the accepted way of thinking and unless you have that you don’t fit in.”
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