UK eurosceptics elect new leader

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

Britain’s populist UK Independence Party (UKIP) has elected outsider Henry Bolton as its new leader Friday.

Bolton will replace Paul Nuttall who resigned following a disastrous snap general election performance in June when UKIP’s vote share shrank to 1.2 percent from 12 percent.

A former soldier and police officer, Bolton won the race with around 30 percent of the vote to become UKIP’s fourth leader in a year.

He defeated rival Anne Marie Waters, who had provoked controversy with hostile comments about Islam.

The Eurosceptic party had campaigned for Brexit and its former leader Nigel Farage stood out as a staunch supporter of the Leave campaign.

Despite seeing June 2016’s Brexit referendum ending in a decision to leave the EU, the party has been dogged by infighting and resignations.

Under Nuttall the party introduced a so-called “integration agenda” aimed at Muslims, including a proposed ban on wearing a full-face veil in public.

It also used anti-Turkey slogans in its campaigns.

UKIP has no remaining MPs in the British parliament and lost all council seats bar one across the country in the last local elections.