Yesterday the immigration figures were out and they were a disaster for the government. After promising to reduce them to “tens of thousands” they overshot by hundreds of thousands, with 187,000 Bulgarians and Romanians alone applying for National Insurance numbers in 2014, entitling them to work and claim welfare. This is UKIP’s signature issue, EU immigration. After the LibLabCon parties mocked the idea of a flood of Bulgarians and Romanians coming it was an open goal for Nigel to show he had been proved right again on the issue that really moves the dial for UKIP. Where was he?

Speaking to an empty room in Washington D.C. to a handful of political nerds before flying back for UKIP’s spring conference this weekend. The media priorities are crazy, the press operation is amateurish, Paul “Gobby” Lambert was brought in to get a grip on the party’s media handling. Gobby knows that forward planning is key to setting the media agenda. Nigel himself may be on his way from Thanet to Westminster, however there is still a long way to go for UKIP HQ…