UK Independence Party leadership election, 2017
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| Turnout | 39.4% ( 7.5%) |
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Steve Crowther (interim);
previously Paul Nuttall
The 2017 UK Independence Party leadership election was called after the resignation of Paul Nuttall as leader of the UK Independence Party on 9 June 2017, following the poor performance of the party in the 2017 general election. Former party chairman Steve Crowther was chosen three days later to serve as interim leader.
On 11 August, the party confirmed that eleven candidates had been cleared to stand for the leadership. Subsequently, the number on the ballot fell to seven as four withdrew to support other candidates.
The election was won by Henry Bolton with 29.9% of the vote.
The leadership contest was run under a first-past-the-post system, where the candidate with the greatest number of votes became leader.
According to party rules, candidates had to have been party members for at least two years as of 23 June 2017, and needed the support of one hundred members across at least ten local parties. Candidates paid a £5,000 deposit, half of which was refundable for candidates who received at least 20% of the vote.
The election timetable is as follows:
There was immediate speculation that former leader Nigel Farage MEP might stand for a third period as leader. Bill Etheridge MEP and Thanet District Council leader Chris Wells both indicated they might stand if Farage did not. Farage subsequently announced in early July that he would not be standing. In the event, neither Etheridge nor Wells stood for the leadership; Etheridge became the running mate of John Rees-Evans.
A key divide between candidates was between what The Guardian described as "Farage-ist economic libertarians" like Etheridge and the "more hard-right, Islam-focused" Anne Marie Waters and Peter Whittle. Etheridge stated that "whichever side wins, the other side won't have a future in the party". In early July, over a thousand new members had joined the party in only two weeks, leading to accusations of far-right infiltration in support of Waters. Party sources suggested Waters had concluded a deal with Whittle that were he to win, she would become deputy leader, which Whittle denied.
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