Ukip website down: Political party are 'aware of the problem'

Initial reactions on Twitter were assumptions that the political party had forgotten to renew their domain name

The Ukip leader Nigel Farage (Getty Images)

Ukip's website is still down, and the problem appears to lie in Deutschland, Europe.

The immediate reaction on Twitter was that the political party had forgotten to renew their website domain name, and one company has already claimed to have bought it for themselves. However the expiry date listed on Domain Tools is 22 March of 2016.

Ukip say that the website now appears to be fixed and will be running again soon. The problem appears to have been caused by their DNS records (pic included) that points browser traffic to the correct location.

Guido Fawkes noted in a website post that titled 'UKIP Web Woe: It Was Zee Germans' that "the bit that’s broken is handled by a very European company: Host Europe, Deutschland, who own 123 Reg".

A screengrab showing an issue with the DNS records

In yet another twist, the technical contact on the Ukip.org domain registration is web design company TW Media.

The portfolio on the company's website features the local site for Ukip South East - clicking on that link takes the user to http://www.ukipsoutheast.org.uk/ which is a domain registered to TW Media's director Time Parson. But this address redirects to youareanidiot.com, which appears with this:

The actual address for UKIP South East is http://www.ukipsoutheast.com.

Who.is.org shows that the website was updated on 5 January 2015. Further information shows that the website was also updated today (6 January).

Alcopop! Records claims to have bought the domain name from GoDaddy.com at 10.30am on 6 December for £200. Interviewed by i100, an Alcopop! Records spokesperson said they have an email confirmation receipt, but have been told by people on Twitter that the transaction won't go through.

Ukip have said they are aware of the problem and are working on fixing it. A Ukip source suggested it was down to "dirty tricks" that "usually happen before an election".

An official Ukip Spokesman told The Independent: "We have had a technical problem with the website overnight, it is being worked on currently and will get it back up as soon as possible."