Ukip announce final list of leadership candidates

Ukip have announced the candidates who are bidding to succeed Nigel Farage as leader.

The final list of candidates in the Ukip leadership race have been confirmed as Jonathan Arnott, Phillip Broughton, Bill Etheridge, Lisa Duffy, Diane James and Elizabeth Jones.

The list of would-be leaders was confirmed after the party's vetting committee met to assess the prospective candidates last night.

Favourite Steven Woolfe won't be standing after being excluded by the National Executive Committee for handing in his paperwork 17 minutes late.

Ukip party members will be able to vote in the ballot from 1 September and the successful candidate will be announced on 15 September.

Who are the candidates?

  • Jonathan Arnott

Jonathan Arnott Credit: Jonathan Arnott

An MEP for the North East since 2014, Arnott says his aim is to reach the 13.6 million people who voted for Brexit on 23 June, but not for Ukip in 2015's general election.

The thirty-five-year-old was party secretary for six years and proposes "constitutional reform that will achieve a dynamic, democratic party".

In the wake of the EU referendum, when Britain voted to leave the European Union, Arnott describes Ukip as the "party of the future".

He wants to hold the government to account and ensure that "Brexit means Brexit".

  • Phillip Broughton

Phillip Broughton Credit: PA Photos

Describing himself as a "young, passionate, northern, working class guy", Broughton claims his real life experience makes him an excellent prospect to lead Ukip through this turbulent time.

He aims to refocus the party and increase its appeal to Tory and Labour voters.

Broughton would like Ukip to be known as the party of "freedom, fairness and opportunity."

  • Lisa Duffy

Lisa Duffy Credit: PA Photos

The Cambridgeshire councillor said she wants to ban Muslim state schools and believes her leadership bid is based on "common sense".

The former Ukip director also vowed to end "foreign abuse" of the NHS and to get tough on crime.

She aimed to rebuild the fractured party with a "grassroots revolution".

She said: "I am not far-Right, I am very much common sense and centre-Right."

  • Bill Etheridge

Bill Etheridge Credit: Ukip

The Ukip West Midlands MEP said that his involvement in politics comes from a belief in personal, social and economic freedom.

He recently said he would ban the burka in public, claiming that the traditional Muslim dress is a "security risk".

Etheridge's proposals include cheaper beer, justice for fathers and a referendum on bringing back the death penalty.

On his website he sets out his manifesto, claiming he wants fewer laws, but tougher penalties for those that break them.

  • Diane James

Diane James Credit: PA Photos

The bookies favourite, James is probably best known for nearly winning the Eastleigh byelection in 2013 from the Liberal Democrats.

An MEP for the south-east of England and the party's justice and home affairs spokesperson, James claims to be working to protect "law abiding citizens within a Britain free of European Court interference."

She is believed by many political commentators to be the candidate most likely to attract Home Counties centre-Right voters

  • Elizabeth Jones

Elizabeth Jones Credit: Elizabeth Jones

Arguably the least known of the candidates, Londoner Jones is standing on a platform of gender equality. Her page on the party's website challenges voters to "vote oestrogen for No.1 for London".

Jones is perhaps most famous for "flipping out" on a live radio show on Voice of Africa Radio 94FM, telling fellow guest Helen Pattison, of the Socialist Party, to "just shut up."

Jones claims her "wide social reach, from high-life to low-life" puts her in a good position to broaden Ukip's appeal.