UK Independence Party leadership election, November 2016
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Nigel Farage (interim); previously Diane James (leader-elect)
The November 2016 UK Independence Party leadership election took place following the announcement on 4 October 2016 by Diane James, the leader-elect of the UK Independence Party, that she would not accept the leadership of the party, despite winning the leadership election 18 days earlier.Nigel Farage, whom James was to succeed after the previous leadership election following his resignation, was selected the next day to serve as interim leader.
On 28 November 2016, former deputy leader Paul Nuttall was announced as the new leader of the UK Independence Party with 63% of the vote.
The party was seen as having two major factions. On one side were those who backed Nigel Farage; in the previous leadership contest these had favoured Steven Woolfe, and then, when he was not nominated, Diane James. On the other were those who wanted a more collegiate party, including figures like Suzanne Evans, the party's only MP Douglas Carswell and its former director of communications Patrick O'Flynn; this group had supported Lisa Duffy in the previous election.
Woolfe was seen by many as the favourite in the election. He admitted he had considered defecting to the Conservative Party following the previous leadership election; an argument concerning this with his MEP colleagues at a meeting in the European Parliament resulted in an altercation with Mike Hookem, after which Woolfe collapsed and had to be hospitalised. He claimed Hookem had punched him, an accusation denied by Hookem. A few days later, on 17 October 2016, Woolfe withdrew his candidacy and quit UKIP, describing the party as ungovernable without Farage as leader.
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Wikipedia