Fresh blow for Ukip as MEP resigns with stinging attack on leader Henry Bolton
2 min read
Another Ukip MEP has today quit the struggling party with a stinging attack on embattled leader Henry Bolton.
Jonathan Arnott, who represents the North-East of England in the European Parliament, hit out at the “atmosphere of negativity and nastiness” in the party.
It is another blow for a party that has seen its vote share plummet since the EU referendum in 2016, registering just 500,000 votes in last year’s snap election.
Mr Arnott becomes the fourth MEP to resign from the party and sit as an independent, following the departures Steven Woolfe, Diane James and Janice Atkinson.
In a resignation statement released this afternoon, he launched into Mr Bolton, who is under pressure after leaving his wife for glamour model Jo Marney.
Ms Marney’s string of racist messages about Prince Harry’s fiancée Meghan Markle only piled more pressure on Mr Bolton, who won a surprise victory to become leader in September last year.
He could be ousted at leader this weekend, with a special meeting of the party's national executive set to decide his fate on Sunday.
Mr Arnott upped the pressure in his resignation statement, saying: “Over the last week it has become abundantly clear that the current Leader is not the right person for the job, but likewise that those jockeying for position and hoping to take his job would be no better.
“Politics has always been like that, but as true believers in a cause, we always thought ourselves to be different. Once, maybe, but no longer.”
He also questions whether the cash-strapped party is still able to effect meaningful political change.
“My Party has, over the last year, significantly shifted its position on cultural and religious issues. This has, as is a matter of public record, placed it at considerable variance with my own views.
“All of this, however untenable my situation became, I would have continued to work from within to change – if the Party were still a vehicle for achieving positive pressure on the government over Brexit. That is no longer the case. The lack of response to Labour’s betrayal over the EU Withdrawal Bill speaks volumes about a Party attacking itself rather than attacking its opponents."
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