- UKIP being “run like a jumble sale” says Arron Banks.
- Farage could quit the party if it doesn’t reform say friends.
- Deputy leader insists Nuttall will continue.
LONDON — UKIP is close to being “finished”, the party’s biggest donor has warned as friends of former leader Nigel Farage say he is also considering quitting the party.
Billionaire businessman Arron Banks told the Sunday Express that the party was being run like a “jumble sale” and would need to be radically reformed to prevent it dying altogether.
He also warned that Farage would consider “heading in a different direction” if things didn’t change soon.
“I am giving Paul Nuttall an ultimatum that either I become chairman and sort out Ukip by bringing in business people and professionals to make it electable or I am out of there,” he said.
“The party cannot continue to be run like a jumble sale. If Nuttall doesn’t professional ise it and toss out the likes of Douglas Carswell and the rest of the Tory cabal then the party is finished anyway.
“These dullards aren’t bringing in Tory votes, Stoke proved that. So what are they for? The party now needs to bring in serious people to fix its ramshackle administration, stay relevant and stay radical or it will die.”
Banks has spoken previously about setting up a new populist right-wing political party to succeed UKIP.
Appearing on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, UKIP deputy leader Peter Whittle suggested that Nuttall had only lost the Stoke by-election because “people hadn’t got to know him enough.”
“Of course it’s disappointing that we didn’t win in Stoke but we are more united than ever,” he said.
He added that the party would survive if Banks left.
“If he does take his money away there are other [donors]”
“Obviously I wouldn’t want that to happen.”
He added that UKIP were still “setting the agenda” in British politics.
“Theresa May has made harsher speeches on immigration than you’d ever see at a UKIP conference,” he said.
UKIP MEP and close Nuttall ally Patrick O’Flynn also defended his leader, telling the Sunday Politics that the party’s losing result in Stoke was an “extraordinary achievement” and a “brilliant success”.
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