Nigel Farage told his position on Suzanne Evans on Sunday, he will not be voting for Ms Evans as the next Ukip leader. Mr Farage has criticised Evans’ comments on ITV this morning, calling it ‘not a very good start’ to her campaign.
Ukio and its leadership is the question, Ms Evans announced her leadership bid on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. Diane James quit the leadership saying she had enjoyed the support of members but not party colleagues.
Nigel Farage said about Ms Evans:
‘For her to talk about the party being toxic, for her to declare one of the candidates is running Raheem Kassam as being far right, I don’t view this as being a very good start.’
Mr Farage claimed Evans previously accused him of being ‘toxic’ and told the former leader ‘immigration shouldn’t be discussed with the public’. In his conversation with Robert Peston, ITV News Political Editor, Farage had not planned to back or criticise anyone in the contest, but could not support Ms Evans after her comments.
“She may well think that herself, but that is not how Ukip members and Ukip voters feel.”
Asked if he would urge Ukip voters to back any other candidate, Mr Farage said: “Well I won’t be voting for her, not after that.”
He added: “I think to kick-off this leadership election campaign by decrying one of the declared candidates is perhaps not the start we needed.”
Suzanne Evans: five facts
Evans was elected as a Conservative councillor in the London Borough of Merton Council on May 6, 2010.
She switched to the UK Independence Party but lost her seat in May 2014.
Between August 4, 2014 and February 24, 2016 she was Deputy Chairman for Ukip.
She was primarily responsible for writing the UKIP 2015 manifesto.
In April 2015, she blamed the British housing crisis on immigrants.
