Former UKIP media officer Alexandra Phillips attempted to ambush her former party leader and boss Nigel Farage live on the BBC Daily Politics programme today, Breitbart London understands.
But Mr. Farage was tipped off to Alex Phillips’s carefully timed defection to the Conservative Party, opting to steer clear of a confrontation with his former employee who has steadily turned against him and UKIP as she became less relevant over the last year.
Breitbart London can also reveal that while Ms. Phillips sought to back Douglas Carswell MP and his party allies, the Member of Parliament voted to turf her off a UKIP candidates list in Wales as recently as February 2016. Ms. Phillips effectively turned her back on those who gave her opportunities in the party in order to support Mr. Carswell and Mr. O’Flynn, who both backed losing leadership candidate Lisa Duffy.
Her claims to the Guardian – that former Farage chief of staff and editor in chief of Breitbart London Raheem Kassam accused Mr. Carswell of a coup “without evidence” – have already been undone by recent events. Mr. Carswell has made no secret of the fact that he wanted to depose Mr. Farage as leader, making Ms. Phillips’s claims even more bizarre.
Kassam commented today: “She’s arguing against the sun setting when it is already midnight. So strange”.
Ms. Phillips had arranged, according to Breitbart London sources, to appear on the BBC’s Daily Politics programme through her long-standing, close friend Robbie Gibb. Mr. Gibb, a former Tory chief of staff himself, is also close with yesterday’s UKIP-to-Tory defector Steven Stanbury. He had planned a show whereby Mr. Farage would be confronted with Mr. Carswell and Alex Phillips.
On the programme, Mr. Carswell complimented her, a defector from his own party, despite his February attempt to oust her from the UKIP ballot in Wales. Mr. Farage had found out about the ambush attempt and pulled out of the programme.
Ms. Phillips is best known for UKIP “success” stories such as the “multicultural” event, most of the stars of which have already defected away from UKIP, as well as the abandoned Croydon Carnival, the “gin” incident at the Methodist Hall in London, and forcing Mr. Farage to wait on a pier in Grimsby for a brief meeting with reality TV character Joey Essex.
The incident takes place on the main day of the UK Independence Party conference, where Mr. Farage gave his final speech as leader. A new leader, Diane James, was elected, smashing competition from Lisa Duffy, Elizabeth Jones, Bill Etheridge, and Phillip Broughton.
Alex Phillips told Breitbart London: “I had a booking to go on [Daily Politics] but an ambush is hardly what it was, that is an absurd turn of phrase”.