Ukip leader is a ‘dead man walking’

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall is a ‘dead man walking’ and could be gone ‘within weeks’, the party’s largest donor has said.

Arron Banks, who gave £1million to Ukip before the last General Election and more than £7million to Nigel Farage’s wing of the Brexit campaign, told The Mail on Sunday that he expected Mr Nuttall to be ousted within days of the June 8 poll, despite only having served as leader for seven months.

The intervention is the latest blow to Mr Nuttall, right, who saw the party’s share of the vote in the local council elections crash to just five per cent, shedding 107 of their 108 councillors in the process.

In February, Mr Nuttall failed to win the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election, despite it being the ‘Brexit capital of Britain’.

Mr Banks said: ‘Mr Nuttall is the purple Pinocchio who has not recovered from the loss of credibility he suffered in Stoke. He is a dead man walking. I expect him to be gone within weeks’.

When asked who he expected to take over, Mr Banks, who has now stopped bankrolling Ukip, tipped health spokeswoman Suzanne Evans, the former leadership contender.

The collapse of Ukip is having a critical impact on the Election, with the party haemorrhaging support, mostly to the Tories, increasing the pressure on Labour MPs in Brexit-supporting areas – even seemingly safe seats.

Mr Nuttall, who is standing in Boston and Skegness in the General Election, has had a torrid time since he succeeded Nigel Farage.

He faced widespread ridicule after The Mail on Sunday revealed false claims on his website that he had played professional football for Tranmere Rovers, while a Linkedin page also falsely suggested he had completed a PhD. The mistakes were blamed on an ‘overenthusiastic researcher’.

Mr Nuttall insists Ukip’s fortunes will turn around, saying: ‘There are a huge bank of people in the North, in the Midlands and in working-class communities in the South who will never ever vote Conservative. And they are not going to vote for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour because they see him as unpatriotic, unrealistic and a throwback to the 1970s.’