It’s unusual to see UKIP backing a Labour candidate, especially so when that Labour candidate is an arch-Remainer who voted against triggering Article 50. UKIP are not running in Wakefield and the party’s candidate in the neighbouring seat is instead urging voters to choose Mary Creagh over the Brexit-backing Tory. UKIP’s candidate in Normanton Lewis Thompson says:

“I’m urging the people of Wakefield to vote Labour. We can’t let the Tories get a huge majority.” 

Wakefield is a winnable Tory target seat: the Labour majority is 2,613. Creagh is a huge Remainer, she said in February that she could no more vote against EU membership than she could vote against her “own DNA”. The Tory candidate Antony Calvert is an avowed Brexiter and the constituency voted 66% to Leave. UKIP’s councillors in Wakefield are backing Calvert, so why is their parliamentary candidate in Normanton backing Labour?