In another fiasco, grandee Neil Hamilton withdrew from a selection contest at Basildon when a row over his expense claims was leaked. Then the man who replaced him, Kerry Smith, quit when a tape of racist remarks was passed to the Press.
“Ukip has had a pretty remarkable year,” said Mr Farage. “If we are ending on a slightly softer note, it’s perhaps not surprising.”
Ukip’s setbacks will raise hopes among Tory and Labour MPs that the giantkiller rival has peaked.
However, the election battle remains a “War of the Weak” with all three big parties marooned on dismal vote shares.
The Conservatives are unchanged on 32 per cent, with Labour still on 29 and the Liberal Democrats also unchanged at nine. Ukip are down a point since November.
The Greens are the biggest climbers, up two points in a month to nine points - the best result recorded so far for Natalie Bennett’s party which only took one per cent at the 2010 election.
The Green rise will alarm Mr Miliband, who recently appointed senior lieutenant Sadiq Khan to oversee the threat posed by the environmentalist party in key marginals.
Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said: “One of the themes of the year has been the rise of the ‘other’ parties as a mirror to the weakness of the traditional three.
“But it’s not just UKIP, as we see this month with a high for the Greens, who are fishing in the same pool of disaffected Liberal Democrat voters who have been boosting Labour.”
Ed Miliband’s ratings have improved in the past month, but are still almost as bad as Nick Clegg’s. A quarter are satisfied with him, compared with 24 per cent satisfaction with Mr Clegg.
Among Labour supporters, Mr Miliband’s net ratings have jumped by 30 points to +7, which suggests Labour is recovering from a post-conference wobble.
