[UPDATED 17:05] West Midlands regional conference in Wolverhampton

We're blogging from the first ever UKIP West Midlands regional conference in Wolverhampton today. Congratulations to regional chairman Dave Everitt and his team on securing an excellent venue in the Wolverhampton racecourse and the support of a broad range of organisations as well as party leader Nigel Farage who will be making an appearance later today.

17:05 Nigel's speech in a nutshell: Let's roll our sleeves up, let's win this referendum

16:55 Questions and Answers are over, it's Nigel time!

16:40 Nigel Farage is in the building

16:25 Standing ovation for Deputy Leader, Paul Nuttall. Passionate and inspirational.

16:20 It is estimated that between 4 and 8 million people will come to Europe this year alone. We must be the party that protects womens' rights. We must be the party that says Sharia courts where a woman has half the value of a man have no place here. We should be the party that tells women you should not have to live your life hidden behind a veil.

16:16 I must point out that Paul Nuttall has said a lot but like the rest of the room I'm far too busy clapping every other thing he says. He's really on form today.

16:15 The first place we should start is to reignite our links with our kith and kin in the Commonwealth.

16:00 What people are voting on on 23rd June can be amended or rejected by MEPs. The EU Parliament is no friend of Britain ... they can alter this and they will.

16:00 The legend that is Paul Nuttall MEP - UKIP's Deputy Leader - takes the stage. The biggest round of applause of the day so far. Says this is the time to right the wrong of 1973.

15:55 Jim says we should open our arms once again to our Commonwealth cousins and is greeted with a huge round of applause.

15:50 Jim Carver MEP points out there was nothing in David Cameron's negotiations about withdrawing from the EU courts and taking back control of our legal system or taking back our seat on the World Trade Organisation.

15:40 John Flack wants UKIPpers to campaign as Grassroots Out, not as UKIP, not as Labour, not as Conservatives. This isn't the message from the party.

15:40 National Director of Grassroots Out, John Flack, pays tribute to UKIP and Nigel Farage for making the referendum happen. He says he simply does not believe what the Prime Minister says. He's a Tory. What does that say about David Cameron?

15:35 Steve Crowther wants every door knocked in the 18 weeks to the referendum. That's going to require a massive canvassing operation.

15:25 Caught up with the Imam from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and got his name. It's Imam Aqeel Kang.

15:25 If we vote to stay in the EU Parliament will get to vote on it after we've voted. And will they decide to give us what we want after we've voted to stay?

15:20 The EU Court of Justice has a history of ignoring legally binding agreements, even if they've been deposited with the UN.

15:15 Party Chairman, Steve Crowther, takes to the stage. He's almost as Marmite as Nigel but who can deny that the party has thrived under his tutelage?

14:45 Drivers contribute £50bn to the Treasury but only £6bn is reinvested into the road network so why should we pay any tolls for roads or bridges? Putting tolls on top of the fuel duty and road tax we already pay is simply wrong.

14:45 Drivers contribute £50bn to the Treasury but only £6bn is reinvested into the road network so why should we pay any tolls for roads or bridges? Putting tolls on top of the fuel duty and road tax we already pay is simply wrong.

14:40 Jill Seymour MEP - UKIP's Transport spokesman - takes the stage. UKIP has always been against HS2 and will continue to stand up and fight for those affected along its route. HS2 is part of the EU's TEN-T project, that's why successive British governments have agreed to spend £55bn on reducing traveling time from London to Edinburgh by 20 minutes. The EU Transport Committee wants to ban diesel cars from urban centres by 2020 and petrol cars by 2030.

14:35 Louise Bours MEP: UKIP's message is clear - believe in the NHS, leave the European Union

14:30 Louise says Jeremy Corbyn signing petitions to save the NHS from TTIP is disingenuous when the Labour Party is going to campaign to stay in the EU.

14:25 UKIP Health Spokesman, Louise Bours, says that TTIP will make the NHS less about public health and more about private wealth. The NHS should always be about TLC not PLC, public need not private greed.

14:20 Bill says we're no pale blue watered down Conservative Party, we're UKIP. We are the party that says what it means and means what it says.

14:15 Cllr Bill Etheridge MEP takes to the stage. After the referendum victory we'll march on and take council seats and Westminster seats. And why not see Nigel Farage as Prime Minister.

14:05 Nigel says Nissan are investing £100m in Sunderland, HSBC and Jaguar are staying in the UK. They wouldn't be investing in the UK if they thought there was a risk if we left the EU. If the CBI says it's a bad thing it must be a good thing.

Michael Gove breaks David Cameron's "collective responsibility" embargo and backs Leave

13:55 And we're into the first half of the afternoon session with journalist Nigel Hastilow. Warm words for UKIP from the former Tory candidate who used his newspaper column last year to tell voters to abandon UKIP and vote Conservative. Thanks UKIP for making sure there is a referendum and making sure David Cameron had no choice but to honour his promise.

12:45 When I first joined UKIP is was one of the youngest members. Now even the party director is younger than me. Thanks for making me feel old Paul.

12:35 Paul says that winning the election isn't the end. UKIP will still be here and injecting common sense into every level of politics. We stand to make big gains in Wales and get the party's first elected representatives in Scotland.

12:30 Party Director, Paul Oakden, takes the stage. He's wearing a Wolves tie in solidarity with the regional chairman. Apparently they're a football team. Paul asks every member in the room to stand if they've ever stood for election for UKIP - it's about 75% of the members.

BREAKING NEWS: Cameron announces referendum for June 23rd

12:25 First mention of the BBC by a speaker met with groans. Our EU-subsidised state broadcaster isn't very popular amongst the rank and file membership.

12:22 If we have to pay tariffs when we leave the EU then so be it. They export twice as much to us as we export to them. For every £1 we have to pay in tariffs they would have to pay £2. So bring it on!

12:20 Bob says that we should embrace the growing global market, including the Commonwealth, rather than the relatively tiny, shrinking EU. If the EU applied to join itself today it would be rejected because it would fail its own democracy test, being run by unelected commissioners like Neil Kinnock who got their jobs by losing elections.

12:10 Dr Bob Spink - technically UKIP's first MP - takes the stage. Plenty of laughter from the room when he defines politics: Poly as in "many" and Tics as in "blood sucking insects". Bob seems to regret resigning the UKIP whip almost as soon as he took it which he says lost him his seat at the next election but will be standing as UKIP Police and Crime Commissioner candidate for Essex.

12:05 UKIP West Midlands regional chairman, Dave Everitt, is presented with a thank you gift from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

12:00 The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community raises over £500m a year for charities including the Royal British Legion. The Community has a 200 year history of promoting peace and tolerance, loyalty and being law abiding.

11:55 The Iman (sorry, didn't catch his name) says that the Koran says it is your duty as a muslim to obey those who rule you locally. It is the duty of a muslim to obey the law and integrate with society. Love of one's country is part of Islam.

11:50 An Imam from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community takes the stage. The actions of extremists with their corrupt ideology grieves all real muslims.

11:45 Flo says that LGBT* people are disproportionately affected by mental health issues, homelessness and social and economic deprivation. UKIP is accused of being homophobic but Flo has had "nothing but respect and equality" from members of the party.

11:35 The second session kicks off with Flo Lewis, chair of LGBT* in UKIP.

West Midlands Young Independence Chairman, Cllr Thomas Hoof, takes to the stage. The media tell us that young people don't join UKIP and don't want to leave the EU. Young Independence represents about 10% of the party's membership and is growing month on month.

Cllr Peter Reeve - UKIP Local Government Spokesman - leads with a tribute to the late Cllr Steve Povey who showed the party how to do local politics.

UKIP Disabilities Spokesman Cllr Star Anderton tells conference about the challenges facing disabled people in light of the cuts being made by local authorities. Shopmobility services are being cut, housing for disabled people is being cut, social housing is being cut.

Martin Day from the UKIP Save the Pub Campaign issues a rallying call to members to get behind pubs and fight pub closures.

Trade unions only manage to get 20 sockpuppets to protest UKIP conference in Doncaster

Just 20 anti-UKIP "protesters" bothered to turn up to the UKIP conference in Doncaster this weekend. The Labour-supporting Mirror newspaper asked the "protesters" why they were there and even helpfully took some paper and a marker pen so the "protesters" could write signs for the photoshoot.

Only one of the "protesters" admitted their political affiliation and the Mirror failed to point out that the whole thing was staged by trade unions, despite the big Unison banner and the "protesters" wearing t-shirts for trade union front organisations.

The first member of the "hardcore band" featured on the Mirror website is Dave Banks who describes his job as "I do car boots". Dave is actually the sales manager for Studio Bentley and a Trade Unions & Socialists Against Cuts Party (TUSC) activist. Dave was part of TUSC candidate, Mev Akram's campaign team during this year's election.

And on the subject of Mev Akram, she was the only member of the "hardcore band" who admitted to being a TUSC candidate. She teaches "skills for life" at the Northern Racing College and describes UKIP as "racist filth". Comrade Mev told potential voters that the TUSC gets all its funding from "people like me and you" but according to the Electoral Commission they accepted £81,000 in cash donations from the Socialist Party and the Socialist Alliance, both of which receive all their funding for one or two wealthy individuals.

Tim Jones also appears on the list. He gives his job as "mental health campaigner" and says that UKIP are "not welcome in Doncaster" and that "racists devides[sic] humanity". Tim is a member of the Sheffield Socialist Party and the TUSC Party which he was a candidate for in this year's local elections.

Jane Sharp says she's "unemployed due to disability" but according to her Facebook profile she's on a Workfare placement at Phoenix Enterprises, a not-for-profit company that aims to increase employability of people who lack useful skills. She is also a member of the Socialist Workers Party and hopes somebody punches Katie Hopkins in the face.

Stephen Porter only appears to be bothered about UKIP challenging the Labour Party in Doncaster. A bit strange as he's a member of rival left wing party, Yorkshire First. He is a member of the trade union sockpuppet, Hope not Hate and supports the EU In Campaign. He told the Mirror that he's a chef but according to his Facebook profile he's just a kitchen assistant at the Earl of Doncaster Hotel. He thinks that newspapers printing biased stories should be illegal but thinks buying pirate DVDs off his mates for a quid is fine.

Ann Bayley describes herself as a "home educator to [her] 7 children". She omitted to mention that she was also a TUSC Party candidate in the local elections. She came last.

Zak Cochrane is a member of Love Music Hate Racism, Rock Against Racism, Stand up to UKIP (described as "a leading activist") and Stand up to Racism - all trade union sponsored organisations. Love Music Hate Racism is run by a convicted criminal who was accused of raping a 14 year old girl. He's also a member of the left wing black supremacist think tank, Institute for Race Relations and a Marxist revolutionary. He goes into schools and colleges to tell children that UKIP is fascist which is, of course, illegal propaganda.

Lani Ball is a Peace & Development Studies student at Leeds Beckett, a Labour Party activist and a member of trade union sockpuppet, Hope not Hate, which is paid by the unions to attack UKIP to try and combat the party's threat to the Labour Party.

The other 11 "protesters" aren't named by the Mirror but all of those who are have strong links to political parties and trade unions. In the group shot you can see a large Unison banner behind these trade unionist political activists.

The Mirror is running a poll on the article asking if UKIP is racist. They must be disappointed that the majority of people have answered no despite the link being shared around left wing extremist groups on social media.

Vi Hong La's first ever public speech

Former Labour supporter Vi Hong La makes his first ever public speech. He did it in front of 2,000 people and live TV cameras!

Conference policy announcements

A raft of new and revised policies have been announced at the UKIP party conference in Doncaster.

You'll find a flag next to each policy to help understand which policies apply to the UK and which apply only to England (something that is always missing from UKIP manifestos) and just for fun a left/right scale below each section - red for left, blue for right. There's no real science to the left/right scale but it indicates that the policies announced this weekend are roughly 60% right wing, 40% left wing. It's no wonder Labour are running scared!

Employment

• People working on zero hour contracts must be offered a fixed hour contract after 12 months. It will be their choice whether to take up the offer.
• Employers will be allowed to discriminate in favour of unemployed British under-25s during the recruitment process. 
• Personal tax allowances will be increased so that nobody on minimum wage will pay income tax. This will take a million people out of the tax system. 
• A points-based immigration system will be introduced that ensures we get more highly skilled immigrant workers doing the jobs we need them to do rather than unskilled economic migrants who add little to no value to the economy. 

50

50

Defence

• Create a Veterans Department in the Ministry of Defence to provide a one stop shop for former armed forces personnel to access services. 
• Guarantee of a job in the police, prison service or border force for former armed forces personnel who have served for 12 years or more. 
• Priority health care for former armed forces personnel, including mental health services. 
• Priority access to social housing for armed forces personnel returning to civilian life. 
• Introduction of a National Defence Medal for all armed forces personnel to acknowledge their contribution. 
• Guaranteed housing for former armed forces personnel. 

50

50

Communities

• Stricter punishments for anti-social and criminal behaviour. 
• Community service for people who cause criminal damage. 
• Criminals jailed for crimes that affect their community will be banned from returning to live in the same area when released. 
• More local public services run by community groups. 
• Unemployed people on training courses should do work that benefits their local community. 
• Help community groups and charities set up credit unions to tackle loan sharks and dependency on pay day lenders.  
• Allow community groups to purchase services and supplies through the local authority to benefit from their buying power.  
• More control of council budgets by the community.  
• End the postcode lottery within local authorities for training and grants. 
• Criminalise noise nuisance so the police can deal with it when it's happening. 
• Make it easier to evict problem families. 
• Protect guerilla gardeners from punishment for improving their local green spaces. 
• Change planning laws so that decisions can be based on the community's access to a range of services and impact on local independent traders.
• Right of appeal on planning decisions for local communities and important planning decisions to go to a referendum. 
• Local people should have a say on highways improvements rather than decisions being based on statistics. 
• Publicly funded services won't be allowed to use premium rate phone numbers. 
• School governing boards must have at least 30% parents of children at the school and councillors appointed to the board must demonstrate a link to the school to prevent political appointments. 
• Councillors must be appointed to outside bodies based on merit rather than their politics and appointments must include residents. 
• No parallel legal systems will be allowed. 
• If you go abroad to join extremists you won't be allowed to come back. 

45

55

Immigration

• Priority entry points at ports for UK passport holders. 
• Increase front line border staff by 2,500. 
• Abolish the provisions of the Dublin Treaty that prevent us from identifying the country of origin of illegal immigrants who come here with no identification. 
• All immigrants should be treated the same regardless of where they come from without discrimination based on religion, origin or ethnicity. 
• A points-based immigration system will be introduced that ensures we get more highly skilled immigrant workers doing the jobs we need them to do rather than unskilled economic migrants who add little or no value to the economy. 
• Reduce net immigration to 50,000 people per year. 

33

67

Health

• Commitment to the NHS remaining free at the point of need. 
• Licensing of NHS managers. 
• Exempt the NHS from the trade and investment agreement about to be signed with the US. 
• Exempt the NHS from investor protection laws so private companies can't sue the government over NHS contracts. 
• Mandatory health insurance for immigrant workers and visitors. 
• County health boards will replace Monitor and the Care Quality Commission and will be run by clinicians. 

60

40

Economy

• Personal tax allowances will be increased so that nobody on minimum wage will pay income tax. This will take a million people out of the tax system. 
• Reducing the tax rate from 40% to 35% on earnings between £42k and £55k a year. 
• Eventual implementation of a simple 20% basic rate, 30% intermediate rate and 40% top rate of tax. 
• Abolish inheritance tax - everything you buy is taxed when you're alive, why should your family pay tax on it again when you die? 
• Introduction of a 25% luxury goods tax to combat "tax free shopping" where the super rich fly in to buy expensive luxury items and claim the VAT back at the airport. 
• Establish a Treasury Commission to design a turnover tax for large companies to ensure a minimum rate of corporation tax is paid. 

50

50

Justice

• Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a UK Bill of Rights. 
• No votes for prisoners. 
• Non-compliance with the EU Arrest Warrant and the EU Investigation Order. 
• Routine personal sound and video recording by police officers. 
• Motivational and learning focus on the rehabilitation of prisoners. 

20

80

Welfare

• Crack down on benefit fraud. 
• Immigrants will have to work for 5 years before being entitled to benefits. 
• Child benefit will only be paid for children living in the country. 
• Limit child benefit to two children for new claimants. 
• Reinstate the spare room subsidy (abolishing the inaccurately-named "Bedroom tax"). 
• End unfair disability benefit assessments. 
• Higher unemployment benefits for people who have paid into the system for 5 years or more. 

43

57

Education

• Return to traditional teaching in primary schools. 
• End sex education for primary school children. 
• Bring back the limit of 30 children per class. 
• A grammar school in every town. 
• Establish a single exam board to prevent schools cherry picking the easiest syllabus to inflate pass rates. 
• Introduce a vocational Apprenticeship Qualification Option worth 4 GCSEs that can be continued to A-Level. 
• Reverse the trend of closing special schools. 
• Require an OFSTED investigation of schools if 25% of parents and governors sign a petition expressing concerns about the school. 
• Abolish the target of 50% of school leavers going to university. 
• Abolish tuition fees for students studying medicine, science, maths and technology. 
• Charge EU students at universities the same as other foreign nationals. 

38

62

Environment

• Incentivise the return of 700,000 empty houses into the housing stock. 
• Relax planning regulations in strategic planning zones to convert disused commercial buildings into housing. 
• Concentrate house building on brownfield sites. 
• Establish a UK Brownfield Agency to maintain a register of brownfield sites and administer grants and loans for decontamination. 
• Issue Brownfield Bonds to raise £5bn for redevelopment of brownfield sites. 
• Abolish VAT and Stamp Duty for brownfield developments. 

45

55

Business

• Conduct a skills review to ensure the education system teaches the skills that businesses need. 
• More flexible labour market with less regulation. 
• Work with local councils to encourage free parking in town centres. 
• Simplify the planning system to help SMEs secure change of use and make it easier to bring vacant commercial properties back into use. 

33

67

Transport

• Scrap HS2. 
• Ban new toll roads. 
• Work to abolish existing toll roads. 
• No road pricing. 
• Abolish the EU Certificate of Professional Competence. 
• Introduce a road tax payable on entry to the UK so that foreign haulage companies contribute to the upkeep of our roads. 
• Abolish electric car subsidies. 
• Free bus passes for pensioners and disabled people. 

40

60

Fisheries

• Establish a 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone around the UK and all dependencies. 
• License sustainable fishing, mining and drilling. 

33

67