Senior UKIP figures are proposing to appoint pink-suited Muslim-basher Gerard Batten as their interim leader if Henry Bolton loses the vote at this weekend’s EGM, Guido can reveal. The three UKIP peers, Lords Pearson, Stevens and Willoughby de Broke, have written to the party’s NEC this morning:

“We now write to suggest that, ahead of the EGM on 17th February, you resolve to immediately appoint Gerard Batten MEP as Interim Leader in the event that Henry Bolton loses the vote at the EGM. Further, we suggest that you publicly announce ahead of the EGM that it is your intention to appoint Gerard in the event that Henry Bolton loses, so that UKIP members will know as they vote that you have a plan of action around the party leadership and that there will not be any demoralising vacuum at the top.”

Batten’s support is growing: John Bickley says “most Kippers want Gerard Batten to be interim leader. He’s a safe pair of hands and the party’s Brexit guru. Many of the colleagues I work with and I would support him”. He has also won surely game-changing endorsements from Bill Etheridge and Ben Walker. Batten was previously best known for saying British Muslims must sign a code of conduct, describing Islam as “Mohammedanism” and a “death cult” of which we should have a “rational fear”, and calling for an end to the building of new mosques in the UK until a non-Muslim place of worship is built in Mecca. A supporter once defended him to HuffPo saying: “It’s not like he wants to kill all Muslims”. UKIP leadership jostling seems like bald men fighting over a comb to Guido…