Former UKIP leader and ‘Tommy Robinson’ superfan Gerard Batten has been barred from standing again as leader of the party. The NEC passed a motion on Sunday entitled “Gerard Batten has brought the party into disrepute by his actions and associations and should therefore not be allowed to stand for the leadership of the party.” He’s now fighting back with a Twitter poll…

UKIP’s NEC has now decided to extend the nomination process. Read their letter to members here:

Dear members,

By the time you receive this, you may have heard the news that the NEC ruled on Sunday that Gerard Batten should not be allowed to stand in the coming election for the leadership of the party.

Gerard chose to submit his nomination papers shortly before the deadline for nominations after having said before then that he was not going to stand. Several potential candidates decided not to put in nomination papers that afternoon once they discovered that he was standing after all.

The NEC therefore decided to allow me to extend the deadline for nominations until 5pm on this coming Thursday, 11^th July. The shortness of time is not to encourage new candidates, but to allow those who were disadvantaged by the sudden lodging of paperwork from a candidate who is now not standing. The rest of the election timetable remains the same.

I will make a further announcement on Friday setting out the full list of candidates whose names will appear on the ballot paper.

Kind regards,

Piers Wauchope
Returning Officer