Paul Nuttall's Ukip Stoke Central by-election campaign ends as it began... in chaos

Stranded in a pitch black car park and besieged by reporters, Paul Nuttall’s campaign ended as it began — in chaos.

“Where’s the car?” bellowed one-time Ukip leadership hopeful Lisa Duffy as she realised Mr Nuttall’s escape from the scene of a historic defeat had been thwarted by disorganisation. Yet again, Ukip had been let down by its own incompetence.

Harried from the Stoke by-election count by a throng of reporters, Mr Nuttall seemed to have written his own epitaph when he said a few minutes earlier: “I’m not going anywhere.”

It was the end of a brutal campaign for Mr Nuttall, who had been dogged throughout over his supposed connections to the Hillsborough disaster. He had also been accused of lying on his nomination form about his permanent address in Stoke.

Arriving after midnight at the cavernous Fenton Sports Centre, defeat was written over his face. He took off his trademark tweed overcoat and paced up and down the counting tables watching wads of white ballot papers heaping up for Labour’s Gareth Snell.

“It’s like I’m running the gauntlet,” he joked as he passed the media, who scented blood. “If I haven’t won, it’s because I haven’t got enough votes,” he said, wearing an oversized smile.

By contrast, Labour’s election co-ordinator in Stoke, Harriet Harman’s husband Jack Dromey, was happily talking up the by-election as a “defining moment of British politics”.

Triumphant Mr Snell — who once nearly blew it by tweeting a poem which described Brexit as a “massive pile of s***” — now took delight in calling out to Mr Nuttall’s gloomy supporters: “You. Have. Failed.” It hurt.

What made this by-election exciting was the profile of the challenger — a man who claimed Ukip were the natural inheritors of the working class.

A man who had hailed Stoke as the “Brexit capital of Britain”.

As he tried to make a dignified exit, he told reporters: “There is a lot more to come from us. We’re not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere. So we move on.”

“But this is the Brexit capital of Britain!”, the room groaned collectively. “There’s other issues beyond Brexit,” he replied, suddenly turning Ukip’s raison d’etre on its head.

Even the Monster Raving Loony Party were in higher spirits, delighted with their 127 votes. Rapper Professor Green, who had been filming proceedings for a documentary, left after the result was announced, tweeting “Back to LDN”.

Out in the car park questions kept flying about Mr Nuttall’s error-strewn campaign. Within moments he was drowning in a sea of journalists, his taxi nowhere to be seen. Order was only restored when police officers chaperoned him away.