Ex Lib-dem elected Ukip’s shock new leader
Security boss who toppled two front-runners in vote vows to ditch the party’s anti-islamist rhetoric
A VIRTUALLY unknown security expert has been elected leader of the UK Independence Party with a pledge to distance the party from its anti-muslim rhetoric at the general election.
Henry Bolton, who once stood for election as a Liberal Democrat, beat Sha- ria Watch director Anne Marie Waters and the London Assembly’s Peter Whittle, the two front-runners in a seven-way contest, to win with 3,874 votes.
Mr Bolton said the party had avoided becoming a “UK Nazi Party”. His shock victory at the party’s conference in Torquay averted a split in the party, with some MEPS reportedly threatening to quit if Ms Waters had won.
Mr Bolton is the party’s fourth leader in just over a year as the party struggled to fill the void left by Nigel Farage.
He replaces Paul Nuttall, who stepped down after a disastrous election campaign. Mr Farage told The Daily Telegraph: “Is he a solid, sensible, decent, non-extreme human being? Absolutely. I voted for him and I will help him.” Mr Bolton said of Mr Farage: “Nigel is Nigel and I’m not going to try and fill his boots. I have my own style, I have my own personality and I think you will see that emerge.” Former Ukip donor Arron Banks, who has been at odds with the party, suggested he might start to help fund the party again.
Mr Bolton, 54, a former army officer and policeman who won an award for bravery, said he would combine his unpaid role as leader with running his security consultancy.
He has three children, one aged 32 from his Danish first wife and two aged four and one from his Russian-born wife, Tatiana, 42. The couple hit headlines last year when she gave birth on a highspeed train from Ashford to London.
On policy, Mr Bolton said he would ditch Ukip’s general election “integration agenda”, which focused almost entirely on Muslims. “I absolutely abhor the rhetoric that says we are at war with Islam,” he said.
On the transgender debate, he said: “I think we are getting a bit far when we are encouraging children in some cases to question their own sexuality.”
Separately, Ukip risked a legal row with the Premier League after it unveiled a logo which incorporates a lion, replacing its traditional pound sign. The Premier League declined to comment but was said to be consulting its lawyers. Gary Lineker called it a “rip-off”. But a Ukip spokesman said: “We’re not that stupid. Gary Lineker is a very well known, somewhat sanctimonious, extremely well paid TV celebrity who has his own opinions.”
Earlier at the conference, Michael Nazir-ali, former Bishop of Rochester, appeared to blame a slump in churchgoing in Britain on mothers who failed to pass their faith on to their children.
And Steve Crowther, the party’s interim leader, announced that people should be free to “black up” or dress as nurses with balloons down their shirts without risk of prosecution by the police.