Negative briefings, leaked emails and mass resignations – last night the joys of student politics found their way right to the top of the UKIP hierarchy. As Guido revealed yesterday evening:

Olly Neville is set to be removed by UKIP as their youth chairman over his views on gay marriage.

— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) January 8, 2013

Last week Neville incensed party bosses after announcing his support for gay marriage during an interview on The World at One. UKIP is briefing that gay marriage is not the reason the NEC has taken the decision to remove Neville, but extensive emails seen by Guido show that the interview was seen by party chairman Stephen Crowther as “absolutely unacceptable”. The party insists the decision was taken after a series of policy disagreements in which Neville was increasingly off-message. You are not a mature political party until your youth wing goes loco…