Draft letter of apology from Nigel Farage to Roger Lord

Dear Roger

It has not escaped my notice that your feathers have been ruffled over the announcement of the by-election that Douglas Carswell has triggered, in which he will now be the UKIP candidate. This will mean that you will not now be UKIP candidate for reasons you will no doubt already be aware of. Douglas has risked his political career by defecting from the Tories to us and I am sure you will understand that it is tactically satisfying that he trigger the by-election and then to win it back, just as David Davis did in Howden & Haltemprice when he had had enough of David Cameron.

While I know that this is a source of grievance to you that you were not informed before the official announcement of this before Douglas's press conference, perhaps you will understand that it is necessary for certain things to be kept under wraps until it is announced properly, for maximum effect and publicity. There would always be the danger of such stories being leaked to the media had we told you earlier, causing the eventual announcement of a half-leaked story to lose much of its impact.

Judging from the behaviour you have been exhibiting since the announcement, it was very likely indeed that you would not have been able to take it on the chin like a man and done exactly what Douglas and I feared, and complained to the local party thereby leaking it to the media before we were ready to hold the press conference.

I am sure you will acknowledge soon if you have not already done so that you are unlikely to be chosen as the Clacton candidate now that our plans have been announced. Douglas is already known as a politician with intellectual "bottom" while you for all sorts of reasons are not.

To insist on the local party going through the formalities of choosing Douglas instead of you will do no one any good, and I am a little surprised that I have to explain this to you at such length.

It seems you want an apology, or something, from me after all the years of devoted service you have rendered UKIP, and this I am happy to do, in writing, to assuage your grievance. But it cannot be denied that Douglas is an obviously superior candidate in the light of the media interviews we have heard you giving to the effect that your feelings were hurt for being cast aside in favour of a candidate who is actually a professional politician, unlike yourself.

I trust this will be the last we will hear about the matter.

Yours, 

Nigel Farage