Daily Express newspaper owner Richard Desmond donates £1 million to Ukip

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32340976
http://order-order.com/2015/04/16/co...V4q2_0vCo1AhUw

Daily Express newspaper owner Richard Desmond donates £1 million to Ukip

Richard Desmond, whose publishing company owns the Daily and Sunday Express, has donated £1m to UKIP.

Mr Desmond said UKIP was "not run by elitists" and was a party for "good, ordinary British people". UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the money would help "significantly" in its fight "against the big battalions". Mr Desmond, owner of Northern and Shell Media Group, donated £300,000 to the party late last year.

As well as the Daily and Sunday Express, the group publishes OK! and Now! magazines, as well as the Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday. Mr Desmond said UKIP, which campaigns for the UK's exit from the European Union, did not have "a massive party machine or highly paid public relations people" and was "struggling to have a voice".

Explaining his donation on the Express website, Mr Desmond said: "They are human; they are not perfect and they do not pretend to be. But what they believe in is the best for the British people. "They are the sort of people who will stand up for people who are struggling."

Mr Desmond donated £100,000 to the Labour Party in 2001, around the time of Northern and Shell's takeover of the Express.

However, while the Daily Express has previously backed the Conservatives, in recent months it has repeatedly praised UKIP in editorials.
Wednesday's Express comment described UKIP as a party "that speaks for a large number of ordinary Britons", with a manifesto offering "an attractive package of measures".

Party leader Mr Farage told the newspaper: "This money will make a big difference. We are up against the big battalions; this helps significantly.
"It enables us, particularly with our online presence, to reach bigger and bigger audiences. "We've been doing very well compared to the big parties already and this will make a big difference."

Despite a slight dip in some recent polls, UKIP has been polling ahead of the Liberal Democrats and is hoping to add to the two MPs it gained in by-elections following defections from the Conservatives.

Farage and Desmond just an hour or two ago

“I firmly believe in Ukip. It’s a party for good, ordinary British people. It is not run by elitists. They are struggling to have a voice. They do not have a massive party machine or highly paid public relations people. They are human; they are not perfect and they do not pretend to be. But what they believe in is the best for the British people. They are the sort of people who will stand up for people who are struggling.

I don’t believe Cameron has delivered on his promises. I don’t want to be a member of a club. As Groucho Marx said, I don’t want to join any club that would have me as a member. I always have challenged the establishment and I want to continue to challenge it. I’m giving this money because I believe….as Emerson, Lake and Palmer might put it… Ukip’s political outlook is a ‘fanare for the common man. I want to back our customers, Daily Express readers, who believe in many of Ukip’s common-sense policies on the EU and immigration and taxation. That is why I am putting my hand in my pocket; it is for my customers, my readers. I hope by doing this, it will encourage more people to do the same.
I want them to stand up like me and be counted. I believe there are still people out there who are frightened to stand up for something new and I hope they will follow my example.”

Looks like we know where the endorsement of the Express newspaper is going. A big loss for the Tories considering the Daily Express has backed Conservatives for decades with the only example I can think of being in 1997 with the Blair Ministry. The money will go far in tight constituencies.

Thoughts?

[Kardan]

I'm sure the Conservatives will be fine, they have the most endorsements from national newspapers it seems.

[FlyingJesus]

Disappointing full title

preferred it as it showed in New Posts