Shropshire Star

Suzanne Evans' Ukip leadership bid in limbo with no sign of suspension being lifted

Suzanne Evans sees no sign of Ukip lifting her suspension and allowing her stand for the leadership of the party.

Published

The Shrewsbury politician, who received plaudits for her work on the Ukip manifesto at the last General Election, remains suspended and unable to take part in the leadership election sparked by Nigel Farage's decision to step down.

Mrs Evans, aged 52, has received considerable support and encouragement to stand. Leadership hopeful and current deputy leader Paul Nuttall said he would like to see her name on the ballot paper.

She said: "I am hopeful the suspension will be lifted. I think there are a lot of people who would clearly like me to stand, I think the other candidates would like me to stand.

"Why would they want to win knowing one of the front runners had not been allowed to run? If it was me I would not want to win like that."

Mr Nuttall said: "Suzanne is a fantastic frontwoman for the party.

"She comes across great on television, really good on radio and I hope Suzanne comes back into the party and we can move forward and take it from there. If the national executive committee say Suzanne is able to stand, then I will back them absolutely 100 per cent."

Any decision on whether to lift Mrs Evans' suspension is down to the party's national executive committee, although she said that it would be unlikely until Nigel Farage has left his post.

She said: "I am still suspended and I see no sign that they are going to lift it. Nigel is still the man in charge, he might have announced he is stepping down but he has not actually left his position yet."

Mrs Evans stood for the Shrewsbury and Atcham seat in the last General Election and she admitted she would like to contest the position at the next election.

She said: "Yes, I think I would. Obviously I can't say what will happen in the future but as of today's date, yes I would."

The former Ukip chairman said that she would hope to use any position as leader of Ukip to champion the voice of the countryside. She said: "One of the things I think Ukip feels very strongly about is protecting the countryside and I do not see either of the political parties doing that. Labour wants to concrete over the countryside and the Conservative Party is concreting over the countryside at a faster rate than any other Government in history."

Nigel Farage shocked many by announcing his resignation as Ukip leader on Monday. It came only 10 days after the UK voted to leave the European Union. He said that with the referendum victory he felt it was time to step aside.

He said: "I now feel I have done my bit. I couldn't possibly achieve more than we managed to get in that referendum. I feel it's right that I should now stand aside as leader of Ukip. I will continue to support the party and the leader."

Mr Farage said he will now focus on providing assistance to groups campaigning for independence in other European countries.

He said: "I'm very keen to help the independence movements in other parts of the European Union because you haven't seen the last country to leave the EU.

"It has been a huge chunk of my life doing this and it isn't easy to let it go but it does come at a cost to me and perhaps those around me. During the referendum campaign I said I want my country back. What I am saying now is 'I want my life back', and it starts today."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.