The Scotsman

Nigel Farage says Ukip mass meeting will decide if party ‘has a future at all’

- By ANGUS HOWARTH scott.macnab@scotsman.com

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has said a mass meeting of members called to decide the fate of his successor Henry Bolton will now determine whether the party has a future at all.

Next month’s extraordin­ary general meeting was announced after Mr Bolton refused to accept a vote of no confidence in him by the party’s national executive committee following controvers­y surroundin­g his ex-girlfriend Jo Marney.

Mr Farage told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This 0 Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage on the party’s future extraordin­ary general meeting is not actually anymore about Henry Bolton, it’s about ‘can Ukip survive as a party?’.

“I am not saying that I support Henry Bolton. What I do support is him saying to the NEC I’m not going to take your judgment, I will move this on to a full extraordin­ary general meeting of the Ukip membership and that gives us a huge opportunit­y. If there was an EGM tomorrow, Henry Bolton would lose it very heavily indeed, but he has a month in which to make his case.”

The comments came as Mr Bolton warned the party could not afford another leadership contest. A stream of senior Ukip officials have resigned from their posts in protest at Mr Bolton’s refusal to step down after it emerged Ms Marney sent highly offensive messages about Prince Harry’s fiancée Meghan Markle.

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