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…
As Guido flagged a fortnight ago, UKIP has committed to winning the nominative determinism prize of the year by selecting Dr Peter Gammons to fight their 2021 London mayoral campaign. Dr Gammons’s ‘doctorate’ comes from Canon University, Florida, an establishment that is not governed by the US Department of Education and gives out ‘PhD’s after a maximum of 126 hours of work. A website claims Dr Gammons has healed a Nepalese man of lung cancer, restored deaf people’s hearing, and completely healed a wheelchair bound sufferer of multiple sclerosis – all through prayer.
He promises to get London moving again my repurposing disused underground tunnels into walkways, safe cycle lanes and “create the world’s first underground ‘Pod’ transport system.” Twitter should have fun with this…
A senior party source informs Guido that the race to choose UKIP’s 2021 London mayoral candidate has one clear front runner leading the pack ahead of the NEC vote; it looks almost certain the party once led by Dick Braine is returning to nominative determinism in selecting Dr. Peter Gammons to take the fight to Sadiq Khan. A little bit bad taste to take Gammons to a fight against a Muslim candidate…
Dr. Gammons is a professional “inspirational and motivational speaker” and claims to have spoken to rallies of up to 4 million people, becoming a friend and adviser to “Presidents, Prime Ministers, Royalty, Celebrities and World Leaders” in the process. Peter’s ironic name also led to headlines last September after publicly defecting from the Brexit Party to UKIP. Let’s hope Dr. Gammons’s commitment to UKIP wasn’t a load of porkies…
On this day four years ago, Nigel Farage stepped down as UKIP leader of six years following the EU referendum. Guido decided to look back across the last four years and found that the party has had 11 leaders and interim leaders. Since Farage stood down, interim leaders have led the party 38% of the time…
- Diane James: Resigned claiming she did not have the full support of her colleagues and officers
- Farage, interim leader
- 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
🥂Here’s to the next four years…
UKIP’s manifesto launch day got off to a great start this morning, with interim leader Pat Mountain having her first outing with Adam Boulton. It made for classic election TV…
During the eight-minute interview, viewers saw Pat:
- Refer to “other racist parties” before quickly correcting herself
- Not know where the party is standing
- Read out a policy from the manifesto and didn’t know the details when pressed
- Say UKIP don’t have any black candidates but might have an Indian man
Pat Mountain, who of course replaced Dick Braine, joins a long list of very tough future pub quiz questions…
UKIP continue lurching from cock-up to disaster as the latest leader, Dick Braine, has sent a statement to party members saying he will be boycotting his own party conference this year. At least the captain of the Titanic had the decency to go down with his sinking ship…
Some members are speculating the conference may not go ahead at all due to depressingly low ticket sales. According to one activist, the party hired a 700-seat venue but have struggled to sell more than 100 tickets and “stand to lose a fortune”, and it is only because of the party’s chairman’s insistence that the event is still going ahead.
Many party members are also deliberately boycotting the conference over the NEC’s refusal to accept Gerard Batten’s appointment as deputy leader – including Batten himself. Today’s UKIP would struggle to organise a piss-up in a spoons.
UPDATE: Read Braine’s email to party members here:
