When the United Kingdom Independence party was established in 1993 by Alan Sked, the party existed for one reason only: to campaign for the UK to leave the European Union. Jump ahead 22 years later and the party is now unrecognisable to its founder, who tells the author of Following Farage: ‘I’m Dr Frankenstein and the monster’s gone amok.’ So what happened in the intervening years?

At the outset, Owen Bennett warns the reader not to expect deep analysis of the party, rather a collection of anecdotes. But the book’s interviews with key party figures and tales from his time reporting on Ukip as a journalist for the Daily Express shine a light on the history of its transformation from a party, which in 1994 received just one per cent of the vote in the European elections to one which received 27.5 per cent in 2014.

The very recent nature of Ukip’s rise is emphasised by the fact that the book opens in 2013 with the local election campaign and a trip by Nigel Farage to a small village in Hertfordshire called Hoddeston. Bennett recalls that the day was cold, the village empty and that the Ukip bus had broken down. This is far from the electric atmosphere and media scrum that we are now used to seeing whenever Farage makes an appearance.

From sleeping in a hotel kitchen, to begging bouncers to be let into Ukip’s post-rally drinking in a pub, Bennett gives the reader an insight into the not-so-glamorous world of political journalism. His writing style is self-aware and the situations he finds himself in for the sake of a good headline had me chuckling throughout. The book features an interview with the famous Winston McKenzie as well as detailed accounts of Bennett’s interactions with members of the ‘people’s army’ which often resulted in rants on immigration to a bemused Bennett.

The relationship between the media and Ukip’s press office appeared to be somewhat tenuous, however, despite Bennett at the time being a journalist for an anti-EU, anti-Labour newspaper. At times he found himself tipped off, while at others he was left out of the loop and forced to rely on fellow journalists for information. For a political party that screams ‘free speech’ at any criticism of its views, it actively prevented journalists from reporting on its activities, sometimes even excluding people from press conferences for writing a negative article about its dear leader Farage.

After the Ukip National Executive Committee’s rejection of his resignation, one is left wondering where the party could go next. It has come a long way from the days of its bizarre 2010 manifesto promise to make London’s Circle line a circle once again. But without a strong, personable leader, this book reveals how quickly Ukip could descend into obscurity and infighting. Following Farage is a must-read book for anyone wishing to understand one of the major political phenomena of the age.

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Samantha Jury-Dada is events officer at Progress

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Following Farage:
On the Trail of the People’s Army

Owen Bennett

BiteBack Publishing | 384pp | £12.99