UKIP Take 402 Days to Decide on a New Leader
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Neil Hamilton was last night confirmed as UKIP’s leader – their twelfth formal leader and interim leader since Farage stepped down in 2016. Last year their last leader, Freddie Vaccha, was suspended for as-of-now still unknown reasons, replaced by Neil Hamilton. Over 400 days after Hamilton took over as interim leader, the party’s confirmed him as their new permanent leader. He beat someone called John Poynton by a margin of 57%, on a turnout of just 20.7% among the 3,047 membership…
As Guido recounted after Vaccha’s defenestration in 2020, UKIP’s post-Farage leaders have been a procession of glittering luminaries:
- Diane James: Resigned claiming she did not have the full support of her colleagues and officers
- Farage, interim leadership encore
- Paul Nuttall: Resigned after the party’s miserable 2017 election performance
- Steve Crowther, interim leader
- Henry Bolton: Resigned after leaving his wife for Jo Marney, a model 30 years his junior. Marney was suspended from the party for leaked texts containing racist comments about Meghan Markle and attacking Grenfell Tower Victims. The NEC passed a VONC
- Gerard Batten, interim leader
- Gerard Batten: Resigned after UKIP’s 2019 EU Election wipeout
- Piers Wauchope, interim leader (who?)
- Dick Braine: Suspended from UKIP after being accused of stealing membership data, and after 81 days of constant mockery over his silly name
- Patricia Mountain, interim leader. Remembered for her hilarious 2019 election interview in which she said “other racist parties“, didn’t know where the party was standing, and said UKIP didn’t have any black candidates but “might” have an Indian man
- Freddy Vachha: Suspended by the party after 82 days – no one’s sure why. He claims he is still the leader of UKIP. His CV boasted fluency in four languages (including English and American) and says he’s “never ever” boring despite minimal drinking and only ever having smoked two cigarettes
- Neil Hamilton: interim leader
- Neil Hamilton: leader
Guido’s just heartbroken Dr Peter Gammons didn’t get a look-in…
