Ukip’s leader, Henry Bolton, has unanimously lost a vote of confidence from the party’s national executive committee, plunging it into renewed chaos and potentially a fourth leadership election in just 16 months.
Bolton’s was the only vote in favour of his staying in the role after an emergency meeting to consider the fallout from his relationship with a much younger party activist who was found to have sent racist text and social media messages.
The vote does not compel Bolton to step down, but it will trigger an emergency general meeting of the wider party to formally decide his fate.
A statement from the party chairman, Paul Oakden, said the NEC heard a statement from Bolton, after which members “asked a number of questions pertaining to that coverage”.
It said: “At the conclusion of that discussion, the committee took the decision to hold a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Henry Bolton. The vote was carried unanimously with the exception of the leader.”
The emergency meeting will take place within 28 days, unless Bolton were to resign beforehand. There was no immediate word from Bolton as to what he would do.
In interviews before the meeting yesterday, Bolton said he had done nothing wrong in his relationship with Jo Marney.
Bolton has come under increasing pressure after social media and text messages from Marney emerged in which she used racist terms about Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s fiancee, among other offensive language.
Bolton said a new leadership election to replace him would be “unviable” for Ukip’s finances and could finish it as a party.
“If the NEC decides to go down the route of months of further infighting and further negative media scrutiny by deciding to pass a vote of no confidence in me, then I think that the reality is that the party is probably over,” he told ITV’s Peston on Sunday show.
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