Guido found Anne-Marie Waters hiding out with staff at a cafe outside UKIP’s conference in Torquay. She had not been seen inside the conference centre all day. Asked how she would deal with a mass exodus from the party if she wins the leadership she said:

“We’ll see if there is one, let’s see what happens… I don’t see how they come to the conclusion that criticising a religion, a religion that’s responsible for misery and suffering around the world, will never be racist.”

Spoiler alert: there will be an exodus if she wins…

I’m just getting ready… pic.twitter.com/Yqbt74tCAH

— george garbow (@forgefarbow) September 24, 2017

If Anne Marie Waters wins Nigel Farage says UKIP is finished and there is no future for UKIP if it is led by her. With most of the votes in and the count due on Friday her noisy supporters on social media are convincing themselves she will win. The bookies agree. Calling UKIP sources who are usually in the know it is clear no one really knows. Did her recently joined UKIP supporters register in time to vote? Do most ‘Kippers pay any attention to social media? 

Guido has a hunch that Peter Whittle will win. Arron Banks’ Leave.EU has backed David Kurten. There is a surprisingly long list of candidates. The threat by the UKIP MEPs to resign en masse if Anne Marie Waters wins will surely have been noticed by ordinary members. If Anti-Sharia Anne Marie wins the UKIP rebrand at their conference this weekend will be colourful…

UKIP leadership candidate Henry Bolton is not a star name but he has boosted his profile in the party during this year’s contest and has won a lot of support from members. Bolton says he’s the Farageist candidate and counts Nigel as one of his supporters. Today he has issued a fairly extraordinary statement warning that if Anne Marie Waters (who he doesn’t name) becomes leader then UKIP could become “the UK Nazi Party”. It’s strong stuff…

“Under the wrong leadership, we could see a swing away from our traditional, secular values and stances; towards something far darker… we could easily slip towards the ideals of National Socialism. The last thing UKIP needs is to become the UK Nazi Party… In my opinion, using broad brushstrokes of ignorance to target and denounce one group within the UK population is absolutely wrong. In fact, it’s very reminiscent of the policies invoked under both fascist and communist regimes during the 20th century… Frankly, seeking to blame one section of our community for society’s ills is not patriotism; it’s a form of totalitarianism that goes against everything UKIP as a political force has ever achieved. UKIP was set up to fight the ‘totalitarian’ effects of EU influence on British society. Therefore, I will not sit back and watch the party be hijacked by those who seek to now seize on our success to drive forward their own agenda.”

Kippers starting to seriously worry about what becomes of their party if Waters pulls off an upset…

UKIP leadership hopeful Henry Bolton is challenging the candidacy of anti-Islam candidate Anne Marie Waters, accusing the party’s NEC of violating its rulebook by allowing her to stand. Bolton said:

“I believe the National Executive Committee’s decision to allow Anne-Marie Waters to stand in the party’s leadership election is in violation of the party’s Rules of Procedure… I have initiated this challenge in an attempt to preserve the governance and future of our party. There is little point in having Rules of Procedure if they are not applied…”

The party’s rules state that a leadership candidate must have been in “good standing continuously” for two years, but Waters was banned from standing as a UKIP candidate at the general election. Was a surprise that they let her on the ballot…

What will happen if @UKIP elects an anti-Islam candidate as leader? “The party would be finished” @Nigel_Farage tells @EllieJPrice #bbcsp pic.twitter.com/w6ZHZwFumZ

— DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) July 16, 2017

Nigel Farage has slapped down UKIP’s anti-Islam leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters and warned members the party would be “finished” if she became leader. Nige says of Waters, the Walter Mitty socialist-turned-Tommy Robinson wannabe:

“If UKIP goes down the route of being a party that is anti the religion of Islam, then frankly it’s finished… The party would be finished.”

Sensible ‘Kippers will listen to Nigel rather than scream that he has joined the establishment. Tough one for the alt-right / Breitbart crowd to take.

UKIP’s anti-Islam leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters can be revealed as a strike-supporting socialist and trade unionist who played an active role in the Labour Party for a decade and described her political views as “standard left-wing”. Waters is the supposedly hard-right, Tommy Robinson-endorsed candidate in the UKIP leadership race. UKIP figures are concerned she is a Walter Mitty character, self-publicist and entryist who has taken a less than credible political journey. A 2011 video obtained by Guido shows Waters, then a prospective Labour candidate in Thurrock, talking up her socialist credentials:

“Most of what I believe would be standard left-wing… I believe in what I believe in. I believe in a strong public sector, I believe in the NHS. If there was a traditional left-wing, yes… that’s what I believe in…

I definitely endorse the right to strike and I think the Labour Party needs to stand up for the right to strike more often… I always support the trade unionists, I’m naturally inclined to support the trade unionists and I think Labour needs to reconnect with the trade unions… Generally I support strikers and certainly I support the right to strike…

The first issue and the one I am most concerned about is the NHS. I think we’ve lost sight of why we had an NHS. We’ve lost sight of why the Labour Party created the NHS and we need to return to those principles. And it’s under very sustained attack now by the Tories. They’re gonna try and do now what Thatcher couldn’t do, which was entirely privatise the NHS.”

Words which will rule her out as an option for traditional UKIP members.

Guido can reveal Waters was a Labour Party member for ten years. She was a Labour council candidate in London and ran to be Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Brighton Pavilion. In her 2013 resignation letter – deleted from the internet but obtained by Guido – Waters says she “spent endless hours canvassing, door-knocking, minute-taking (as constituency secretary) and I held several posts at branch, constituency, and borough level”.

There is of course a long tradition of left-wing nationalists, from Oswald Mosley to Marine Le Pen. Though Waters’ political journey from Milibandite to the female Tommy Robinson suggests she is not so principled. UKIP supporters have taken to calling her “Anne Waters Mitty”…