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Ukip Q&A: Who will be the party’s new leader now Nigel Farage has stepped down?

The Big Questions: The field has been reduced to two candidates – but they probably aren’t the ones you expected

Wednesday 27 July 2016 17:19 BST

Nigel Farage announced he was standing down as Ukip leader on 4 July (EPA)

Having seen his life’s work completed with Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of the UK Independence Party. Now the task of finding someone to guide the party in post-Brexit Britain has begun. Here are some of the key questions surrounding the upcoming leadership contest:

What has Ukip been up to since Brexit?

Ukip is doing what the Labour Party is doing, and what the Conservatives did for a couple of weeks: they are having a leadership election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, did not have to resign, as David Cameron did, nor was anyone trying to force him out, as is the case with Jeremy Corbyn, but he chose to quit, announcing at a press conference on 4 July: “During this referendum campaign I said I want my country back. Now I want my life back.” He had after all achieved what had been his mission in life for more than 20 years.

'I Want My Life Back' - Farage Resigns as UKIP Leader

Nominations for the resulting leadership contest close this Sunday. Ballot papers will go out on 1 September, and the votes will be counted on 16 September.

Is that the last we will hear of Nigel Farage?

It is impossible to believe that Mr Farage will go gently out of public life. He is still a member of the European Parliament, where he leads a band of 22 Ukip MEPs. Last week, he was in Ohio for the Republican National Convention, cheerfully giving interviews about Donald Trump, and what he believes to be the imminent disintegration of the EU. He suggested that the next countries to go could be Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden – Dexit, Nexit and Sexit – and announced that he is planning a European tour to encourage everyone who is prepared to listen to him on what they can do to dismantle the EU. He has also given Theresa May notice that if she does not begin the formal process of Brexit by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty within five months of the referendum, he will make trouble.

Besides, Mr Farage has resigned from the leadership of Ukip twice before, in 2009 and 2015. In neither instance was he gone for long.

Who are Ukip's best known leaders, apart from Farage?

Ukip's only MP, Douglas Carswell (Getty Images)

Douglas Carswell is Ukip’s only MP. Paul Nuttall has been Deputy Leader since 2010. Suzanne Evans is an articulate former Tory councillor whom Mr Farage once named as his preferred successor. Patrick O’Flynn is an MEP and former Political Editor of the Daily Express. And, the multi-millionaire Aaron Banks has been their biggest financial backer.

So which of these is running for the leadership?

None.

Is something the matter?

Multi-millionaire Aaron Banks has been Ukip's biggest financial backer (Rex)

Like other political parties one could mention, Ukip is riven by in-fighting. It is so serious that in the months preceding the June referendum, they could not agree on which anti-EU campaign to support. Mr Carswell, Ms Evans and Mr O’Flynn were part of the official Vote Leave campaign fronted by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. While Mr Farage was the main front man for the unoffical Leave.EU campaign, bankrolled by Mr Banks. When Mr Banks found out last September that Mr Carswell was supporting Vote.Leave, he threatened him with deselection and denounced him as “a borderline autistic with mental illness wrapped in” – for which he later apologised.

This dispute was not simply about personalities. Leave.EU was prepared to use the immigration as a vote winner for Brexit with a ruthlessness that disturbed people in Vote.Leave.

What happened to Suzanne Evans, the ‘preferred successor’?

Nigel Farage once named Suzanne Evans as his preferred successor (Getty Images)

Mr Farage hailed Ms Evans as a “tower of strength” when she took over as temporary leader after he resigned in May last year. But she was not pleased when he promptly unresigned, and described him as “divisive”. She lost her positions as the party’s policy chief and deputy chair. In March, she signed a petition calling upon Ukip to remove Alan Craig from the party’s candidates list for the London Assembly, because he had previously likened gays to Nazis, claiming society was being “crushed under the pink jack boot”.

This was treated as disloyalty, and she was suspended from Ukip for six months, preventing her from running for the London Assembly or the leadership. She tried to get a court to overturn the suspension, and Mr O’Flynn organised a petition calling for her reinstatement, but neither was successful. Rather oddly, she called a press conference in Westminster on Tuesday to announce that she has given up hope of being able to contest the leadership.

So who are the candidates?

Steven Woolfe MEP is Ukip’s migration spokesman (Getty)

The frontr unner in the current leadership election is Steven Woolfe, a former barrister who is the party’s spokesman on immigration. Mr Banks has publicly backed him, which is perhaps a clue as to whom Mr Farage would like as his replacement. However, Huffington Post has seen documentary evidence that Mr Woolfe allowed his Ukip membership to lapse in December 2014, and did not renew it until four months ago. On one reading of the party rule book that disqualifies him as a candidate, because candidates have to have been Ukip members for at least two years; but the fact that he has been a Ukip MEP in good standing since July 2014 may be taken to mean that he satisfies the membership criteria.

His main challenger will be Lisa Duffy, a former store manager and the leader of the Ukip group on Huntingdonshire District Council. She has the backing of Ms Evans, Mr O’Flynn and Mr Nuttall.

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

Show all 12

1/12Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he unveiled that 'breaking point' poster during the referendum

Mr Farage was accused of deploying “Nazi-style propaganda” when he unveiled a poster showing Syrian refugees travelling to Europe under the next “Breaking point”. Users on social media were quick to compare the advert to a Nazi propaganda film with similar visuals and featuring Jewish refugees. The poster was particularly controversial because it was unveiled the morning of the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox

Rex

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he said he’d be concerned if his neighbours were Romanian

In May 2014 Mr Farage was accused of a “racial slur” against Romanians after he suggested he would be concerned living next to a house of them. “I was asked if a group of Romanian men moved in next to you, would you be concerned? And if you lived in London, I think you would be,” he told LBC radio during an interview. Asked whether he would also object to living next to German children, he said: “You know the difference”

Bongarts/Getty Images

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he said the EU campaign was won 'without a bullet being fired'

Nigel Farage has said the next Prime Minister has to be a Leave supporter

AFP/Getty

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he resigned as Ukip leader and came back days later

After failing to win the seat of South Thanet at the general election, Nigel Farage stepped down as Ukip leader – as he had promised to do during the campaign. Days later on 11 May he “un-resigned” and said he would stay after being convinced by supporters within the party. We’ll see how long his resignation lasts this time

AP/Matt Dunham

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he blamed immigrants for making him late

Mr Farage turned up late to a £25-a-head ‘meet the leader’ style event in Port Talbot, Wales in December 2014. Asked why he was late, he blamed immigrants. “It took me six hours and 15 minutes to get here - it should have taken three-and-a-half to four,” he said. “That has nothing to do with professionalism, what it does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof chiefly because of open-door immigration and the fact that the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be”

Getty

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he wanted to ban immigrants with HIV from Britain

Mr Farage has used his platform as Ukip leader call for people with HIV to be banned from coming to Britain. Asked in an interview with Newsweek Europe in October 2014 who he thought should be allowed to come to the UK, he said: “People who do not have HIV, to be frank. That’s a good start. And people with a skill.” He also repeated similar comments in the 2015 general election leadership debates

Getty

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he defended the use of a racial slur against Chinese people

Defending one of Ukip’s candidates, who used the word “ch**ky” to describe a Chinese person, Mr Farage said: “If you and your mates were going out for a Chinese, what do you say you're going for?" When he was told by the presented that he “honestly would not” use the slur, Mr Farage replied: “A lot would”

Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he said parts of Britain were ‘like a foreign land’

The Ukip leader used his 2014 conference speech to declare parts of Britain as being “like a foreign land”. He told his audience in Torquay that parts of the country were “unrecognisable” because of the number of foreigners there. Mr Farage has also previously said he felt uncomfortable when people spoke other language on a train

Screengrab

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he said the British army should be deployed to France

At the height of trouble at Britain’s Calais border Mr Farage proposed a novel solution. The Ukip leader called for the British army to be sent to France to put down a migrant rebellion. “In all civil emergencies like this we have an army, we have a bit of a Territorial Army as well and we have a very, very overburdened police force and border agency,” he said. “If in a crisis to make sure we’ve actually got the manpower to check lorries coming in, to stop people illegally coming to Britain, if in those circumstances we can use the army or other forces then why not”

AFP/Getty

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he said breastfeeding women should ‘sit in the corner’

Mr Farage sparked protests from mothers after he told women to “sit on the corner” if they wanted to breastfeed their children. “I think that given that some people feel very embarrassed by it, it isn’t too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that's not openly ostentatious,” Mr Farage said. He added: "Or perhaps sit in the corner, or whatever it might be”

AFP/Getty Images

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he said the gender pay gap exists because women are ‘worth less’

At a Q&A on the European Union in January 2014 Mr Farage said there was no discrimination against women causing the gender pay gap. Instead, he said, women were paid less because they were simply “worth far less” than many of their male counterparts. “A woman who has a client base, has a child and takes two or three years off - she is worth far less to her employer when she comes back than when she went away because that client base won't be stuck as rigidly to her portfolio,” he said

Getty

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments

When he said he actually couldn’t guarantee £350m to the NHS after Brexit

During the EU referendum campaign the Leave side pledged to spend £350 million a week on the National Health Service – claiming that this is what the UK sends to Brussels. Nigel Farage didn’t speak out against this figure and also pledged to spend EU cash on the health service and other public services himself. Then the day of the election result he suddenly changed his tone, saying he couldn’t guarantee the cash for the NHS and that to pledge to do so was “a mistake”

Getty

But what is the point of Ukip?

Ukip began as a single issue campaign, and achieved its original purpose when the country voted Brexit, so, on the face of it, it would seem to have nothing left to do except keep watch over the Brexit negotiations. However, those 17 million people who voted for Brexit may well feel unrepresented, since none of the main political parties is led by a Brexit supporter. Ukip was the only political party of any size whose official policy was to support what the country eventually voted for.

Labour, in its current turmoil, is particularly vulnerable to having its support eaten away by a reinvented Ukip with a new purpose. Mr Woolfe, who comes from a Labour background and from an ethnically mixed family background, has said that if elected he will make social mobility the theme of his time as leader and will keep racists out of Ukip.

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