Batten heads list as Ukip look for new leader

Former leader Gerard Batten, who quit the position at the start of this month, leads the list after deciding to stand again due to "overwhelming support".

He stood down on June 2 after Ukip was wiped out at the Euro elections by its former leader Nigel Farage's new Eurosceptic group, the Brexit Party.

Mr Batten served as leader for 14 months and was the party’s sixth leader in just under three years.

Announcing his candidacy, the former MEP said: "Because of overwhelming support from UKIP members I have decided to stand in the Leadership contest."

He said his platform would include "national democracy, economic democracy, political democracy, freedom of speech, and no backtracking or surrender to political correctness".

Mr Batten's time at the top saw a number of members and high profile politicians quit Ukip over claims it had lurched towards the far right, although the party saw an influx of new members in the months prior to the Euro elections.

Other candidates include Helena Windsor, a Ukip chairman in Surrey, Gareth Bennett, who sits on the Welsh National Assembly for Ukip, and former MEP Mike Hookem, who was deputy leader under Mr Batten.

The list is completed by former Royal Navy serviceman Ben Walker, who was part of the ticket in ex-West Midlands MEP Bill Etheridge's last leadership bid and stood for the party as a parliamentary candidate.

Party members will elect the new leader in August.

Graham Eardley, Ukip's branch chairman in Walsall, is backing Mr Batten for leader.

"The party needs stability and Gerard would bring that forward," he said.

"I was happy with the progress that we made with him as leader. With the advent of the Brexit Party, we need to look at pushing our platform as the only true Brexit party with a full platform of policies.

"We are fishing in the same waters [as the Brexit Party] but I am confident we can progress further under the right leader."

Ukip lost 80 per cent of its council seats in May's local elections.

It did not win a single seat in the same month's European elections, despite fielding candidates in every region of the country and having taken 24 seats at the 2014 polls.

The party took 3.2 per cent of the vote overall.

Mr Eardley said: "We didn't perform as badly in the West Midlands as we did in other areas, so we still have a base to build upon."