Ukip leadership favourite forgot drink-drive charge
THE front-runner to replace Nigel Farage as Ukip leader faces being kicked out of the race after he admitted failing to declare a drink-driving conviction when he stood for a police and crime commissioner post.
MEP Steven Woolfe said he ‘forgot about the conviction’ when he ran in the Greater Manchester PCC election in 2012, in a possible breach of electoral law.
Party officials will this morning decide whether Mr Woolfe can be allowed to stand as leader after he also missed the deadline to file his application.
Mr Woolfe blamed a technical error after he submitted his nomination papers 17 minutes after they were due at noon on Sunday.
The MEP was fined £350 and disqualified from driving for nine months after being caught drunk in charge of a scooter in 2002.
PCC candidates must declare convictions for which they could have received a prison sentence, and it is a criminal offence to make a false statement on nomination papers.
Former Ukip deputy chairman Suzanne Evans, who was suspended from the party earlier this year after repeated clashes with Mr Farage, yesterday said Mr Woolfe is ‘probably ineligible’.
She told Sky News: ‘Given the membership, given his nomination paper, it’s not looking good for him. I think he’s probably ineligible.’
She added: ‘If toast is the word you want to use, then perhaps he’s going to be toast.’
Mr Woolfe, the party’s immigration policy chief, had been favourite to take the top job ahead of rivals local councillor Lisa Duffy and MEPs Bill Etheridge and Jonathan Arnott.