Half of Ukip supporters think MI5 is out to get them, poll shows

Survey indicates 46 per cent of party members believe security services are actively working to undermine their party

Despite Nigel Farage claiming victory, more than one in three Ukip members think votes were illegally changed in the EU referendum

Almost half of UKIP members think MI5 is trying to destroy their party, according to a new poll.

The YouGov survey found 46 per cent of members agreed with the statement “Intelligence services like MI5 have been working to undermine UKIP”. The poll echoes an earlier finding that almost a third of Ukip supporters believed MI5 was involved in a plot to rig the EU referendum result.

Other conspiracy theories are also popular among party activists. More than half (55 per cent) think some UKIP members have been planted by Conservative strategists to undermine the party, while 40 per cent believe the EU referendum was the subject of electoral fraud, with officials rubbing out and changing votes.

Almost nine in 10 (89 per cent) believe the media is being deliberately biased in its coverage of their party.

The survey of 1,003 Ukip members found the majority were former Conservative voters, with 66 per cent having voted for the Tories at a past general election, while almost a quarter have previously voted for Labour.

Surprisingly, almost one in seven Ukip members had previously voted for the Liberal Democrats or the Green Party.

The biggest issues of concern for Ukip members – immigration, Brexit, the economy and health – match those of the general public, but they are much more likely to be concerned about immigration and Brexit. Eighty-one per cent of the party’s members believe immigration is one of the most important issues facing the country, while 76 per cent believe the same is true of Britain leaving the EU.

Joe Twyman, head of political and social research at YouGov, told The Independent he was not surprirsed at the findings.

He said: “This really highlights the degree to which distrust of the establishment permeates the Ukip membership. If you’re suspicious of the establishment then you might think it possible that these things are happening.”

“[There is] an idea they are an anti-establishment party and therefore the establishment is going to take steps to act against them.”

He said conspiracy theories were also present among supporters of mainstream political parties but added: “We’ve certainly seen a larger support for these types of ideas amongst the members and the supporters of Ukip and the Scottish Nationalists.”

It comes as Ukip attempts to recover from a catalogue of difficulties that have plagued the party in recent works. Its leader, Diane James, resigned after just 18 days in the role, days before a public row between MEPs Steven Woolfe and Mike Hookem hit headlines after Mr Woolfe ended up in hospital alleging he had been punched by his colleague.

Mr Woolfe, the favourite to take over from Ms James, then resigned from the party after calling it “ungovernable” and saying he no longer knew what it stood for.

In the poll, which was conducted before Mr Woolfe’s resignation, party members expressed their support for his leadership bid. Thirty-seven per cent would like to see the MEP lead the party, while 31 per cent want interim leader Nigel Farage to stay on permanently, despite him having only resigned from the post in July. The other candidates, including Suzanne Evans, trail some way behind.

Nominations in the party’s latest leadership contest close on 31 October, with the winner announced on 28 November. Frontrunners include Ms Evans, MEP Paul Nuttall and Raheem Kassam, a former aide to Nigel Farage.

YouGov polled the Ukip party members between 5 and 14 October.