UKIP are looking at enlisting the services of a team of private specialists to vet their candidates for the 2014 European elections. The party plans to work alongside a specialist company so hundreds of hopefuls undergo a “rigorous psycho-analytic screening” programme to root out pot plant impersonators and keyboard warriors. Obviously looking to avoid a repeat of lurid newspaper headlines about the small number of racist and homophobic candidates that got through their vetting procedure for last month’s locals. Seems a sensible idea to Guido, UKIP are expected to top the bill in 2014 so it makes sense not to take any chances. Fruitcakes and loonies need no longer apply…

The least surprising news of the week.

One Labour and the Tories are jumping on with glee this morning: a newly elected UKIP councillor is in court up on benefit fraud charges. Peter Lagoda won in Cambridgeshire earlier this month, now he is accused of failing to tell his council about changes to his circumstances that would have affected what he received in benefits. At least his Facebook and Twitter are clean…

David Ruffley has been bursting through his shirt to warn Dave he could face a leadership challenge if he doesn’t deal with UKIP in time for next year’s Euro elections, so these numbers won’t make for happy post-holiday reading for the PM. An OpenEurope/ComRes poll has UKIP topping the bill on 27% among those certain to vote in 2014, and still breaking the 20 point mark for the general election. The key number for Dave: two-fifths of Conservative voters from 2010 would vote UKIP in a European election if it were held tomorrow…

UKIP’s 15 councillors in Norfolk have gone into coalition with Labour and the Liberal Democrats in order to shaft the 40 strong Conservative block remaining after the recent upset. While there may be no love lost on the ground after UKIP cost the Tories overall control of the council, in the long run this could work well for Tories nationally.

The narrative about letting the left in by splitting the right-wing vote has never looked stronger.

A short-sighted move here.

UKIP economic spokesman Godfrey Bloom has gone after Margaret Hodge, demanding that HMRC “investigate unanswered questions from C4 News, Sky News and Guido Fawkes about her ‘knowledge’ of the tax affairs of her family trust”:

“It beggars belief that Hodge stated that her family company paid ‘every penny’ of the tax it owed although later she admitted that did not know how much tax it actually paid. Yet, this woman is chairman of the House of Commons Public Affairs Committee. Hodge comes in at No 15 on the Times’ Politicians Rich List, with a mere £18m tied up on the family business, which is in a family trust so there is no inheritance tax to pay.  One rule them and one for the rest of the plebs?  I call on HMRC to investigate.”

Always one to help expose tax hypocrisy, here are a few questions HMRC should ask:

• Why Hodge claimed that “I am a tiny, tiny, tiny shareholder” in Stemcor when her direct shareholding is worth £1.8 million.
• Why Hodge holds several million pounds more worth of Stemcor shareholdings in trusts.
• For what purpose Hodge holds these shareholdings in trusts other than to reduce the risk of a future tax liability.

As Hodge the Dodge said herself last week, “I think what we are going to have to do is order somebody to come who can give us answers to the questions…”

Rotherham council’s decision to remove three children from a foster couple because they supported UKIP sparked huge levels of anger among the readers of this blog, and elsewhere. Today, seven months on, the council has admitted that the woman at the centre of the scandal, Common Purpose graduate Joyce Thacker, was wrong to say it was their membership of UKIP that saw the children taken away:

“The council can confirm that membership of Ukip would not prevent any individual from being considered as a foster carer in Rotherham and could not be a reason for removing foster children from a placement. We accept the impression left following media interviews on the morning of November 24 was that the removal of the children was solely because of the foster carers’ membership of Ukip and the council apologises for this. As this is a child care case, legal reasons continue to prevent us from releasing further details. However, we know that there are important lessons the council must learn.”

Remarkable that it took it so long for them to reach that conclusion. Just last week UKIP gained a council seat from Labour in their Rotherham heartland. No coincidence…

See also: Rotherham’s UKIP Child-Catcher Joyce Thacker

Tory councillor and now former chairman of the Merton Conservative Association, Richard Hilton, is defecting to UKIP, describing loongate as “the final straw”. Five other Merton councillors are also defecting. It’s going to be a long week for Dave…

Trip went well then…

Talking of headaches for Dave, last night’s ICM/Guardian poll has UKIP on 18%, their highest ever rating and double their ICM rating for a month ago. Labour, the Tories and the LibDems all lost four points each, with Labour falling below Ed’s fabled 35% target. UKIP are up nine points. What was that about a referendum?