Ukip in turmoil as Steven Woolfe excluded from leadership ballot

[muriel_volestrangler]

Ukip is set for civil war after former leadership favourite Steven Woolfe was banned from standing because his application was 17 minutes late, making Diane James the new frontrunner to succeed Nigel Farage.
...
Those on the ballot are now James, Ukip’s home affairs spokeswoman and a former parliamentary candidate, Bill Etheridge, an MEP, Elizabeth Jones, a deputy chairman of Ukip’s Lambeth branch, Jonathan Arnott, also an MEP, Lisa Duffy, a party organiser, and Phillip Broughton, a former candidate.
...
Woolfe was backed by many of the Faragists, including Arron Banks, the major Ukip donor who bankrolled an influential anti-EU group during the referendum.

They have claimed the move against their candidate is the result of a coup led by those close to Douglas Carswell, the Ukip MP and critic of Farage, and Neil Hamilton, the former Tory Conservative MP. Suzanne Evans, the former deputy chair, who had clashed with Farage, is backing Duffy.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/03/ukip-leadership-steven-woolfe-excluded-from-ballot

James is a SE England MEP, who came 2nd in the Eastleigh by-election next door to me. I haven't heard of any of the others. It's hard to see if UKIP can keep a role for themselves now the referendum has happened.

[T_i_B]

1. It's not just Labour with these issues then...

Agree that UKIP may struggle now they have achieved their main objective. Looking at the polls it does look like a lot of their supporters are returning back to the Tory fold.

[Denzil_DC]

2. I hesitate to spend too much energy delving into some of these candidates' background

because they might be even more irrelevant within weeks, but I've heard of a couple of these.

Here's a brief, colourful bio of Lisa Duffy (and Peter Reeve, her partner on the UKIP gravy train):

The Ukip String-Puller - The Mysterious Lisa Duffy

... she is worryingly high-placed so someone so devoid of skills, experience, qualifications, or work ethic. (Her five main qualities were described by a Ukip insider as being 'incompetence, dishonesty, arrogance, apathy and stupidity.') As for work ethic, she had a less than 30% attendance record as a Councillor (2014), which is very #Ukip, and we believe this has actually fallen even further recently.

One Ukip insider described her as:

"One of the most obnoxious people we have come across. She is a person without a single shred of talent or integrity. A person who has actively colluded in corruption in order to ensure that both she and her partner - Peter Reeve - keep their snouts firmly in the trough."

She is simply in place through her devotion to Nigel. And she is loyal.

...


Reeve and Duffy, once described as the Ukip 'Power Couple'.

http://www.exposingukip.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-ukip-string-puller-mysterious-lisa.html

Potted histories of some of the other candidates here: http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/08/02/know-your-ukip-leadership-candidate