Awful night for Ukip
When I said in my last article that Theresa May and the Conservatives had stolen UKIP's Brexit clothes it seems this has been borne out by last night's local election results.
UKIP failed terribly last night; losing all of their councillors in Essex and Lincolnshire where leader Paul Nuttall is standing as UKIP's candidate on 8th June. UKIP's woes in these counties were caused by the Conservatives who, if local election results are to go by, are set for a huge showing at the General Election.
Of course, Labour also did badly but they have suffered catastrophic defeats before in general and local elections and bounced back but whether UKIP can is open to debate.
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall's credibility
As I said in my earlier article Paul Nuttall was going to face a huge task in replacing charismatic Nigel Farage. Farage twas the man who connected with the people and brought about the biggest event in British history: Brexit.
Listening to Paul Nuttall speaking on Question Time last night Paul Nuttall made many points that the audience in Wigan cheered. Many pundits felt that because Nuttall comes over as more working class than Farage he would connect with voters with his strong Liverpudlian accent.
But Nuttall may have given himself a credibility problem with the general public by claiming things that were not true, or at least partially not true. His claims about Hillsborough and his claim about his PhD from university had an air of falseness about them.
So Nuttall already has an uphill struggle to replace Farage but in terms of public perception and credibility, it may actually have made that task a littler harder as far as voter trust goes.
UKIP: Will the general election be different?
It would be easy to see why the Conservatives would be jubilant this morning; not only due to the local elections but also in the mayoral elections for the super regions.
Iain Duncan Smith has added his caution to the Conservative jamboree this morning by saying just because the Tories did well in the local elections this, it may not actually be the same on June 8th.
He said that there could be many different reasons the Conservatives performed so well in the local and mayoral elections but this could all change by the General Election.
IDS may have a point; for example, some issues in local elections may cause a party to triumph or fail because of local issues. In a General Election, national and international issues may come into play and again this will impact how parties do results wise.
If UKIP perform badly at the General Election and Paul Nuttall fails to become an MP, it may not be the end for the UKIP but questions will have to be asked where does the party go from there.
