UKIP leader to step down in June

UKIP leader Gerard Batten on Tuesday said he would stand down next month to trigger a contest for the leadership of the controversial anti-EU party.

Batten became leader of the party in April 2018 and pledged to step down after a year to allow a full list of candidates to compete for the post.

UKIP has gone through a succession of leaders since being founded by the right-wing anti-immigration MEP Nigel Farage.

When Batten took over the helm as interim leader in February 2018 he was the the fourth person to lead UKIP in 19 months.

Farage quit after the 2016 Brexit referendum, but came back when his successor Diane James quit after less than four weeks in the post. Paul Nuttall then followed but had to leave after a disastrous showing at the 2017 General Election.

The procession continued with the appointment of Steve Crowther as acting leader until Henry Bolton was elected in September 2018 until he too departed after a row in which his girlfriend, Jo Marney, faced allegations she had sent racist messages about the Duchess of Sussex.

Under Batten, UKIP has shifted even further to the right, typefied by his appointment of the ultra-right former head of the English Defence League Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, as an adviser.