WATCH Henry Bolton: Ukip will probably be finished if I am toppled as leader
3 min read
Embattled Ukip leader Henry Bolton has said the party will probably be finished if it ousts him as leader in a crunch meeting today.
He said a fourth contest in 18 months would spark "further infighting and further negative media scrutiny" for Ukip and urged the party to "move on".
But he insisted he would not quit even if a vote of no confidence is passed against him by Ukip bigwigs.
And he said the party cannot afford to topple him in the wake of his affair with controversial model Jo Marney.
He made the comments as he fought for his political life ahead of an emergency Ukip NEC meeting this afternoon that is expected to decide his fate in a no-confidence vote.
A scandal has exploded around the leader of four months after he left his wife and children for the 25-year-old glamour model.
It emerged earlier this month that Ms Marney sent a string of apparently racist messages - including one in which she said Meghan Markle would "taint" the Royal Family.
She has since been dumped from the party and Mr Bolton broke off the short-lived relationship - despite keeping in contact to support her through the difficult time.
But Mr Bolton today insisted he would not quit as leader and issued a stark warning to the NEC about the future of the struggling party.
"If the NEC decides to go down the route of months of further infighting and further negative media scrutiny by deciding to pass a vote of no confidence in me then I think that the reality is that the party is probably over," he told ITV's Peston on Sunday.
He added: “A leadership contest now would be financially almost unviable for the party."
He went on: “I want to put all this behind us. The personal issues relating to my marriage are for me to deal with.”
Asked later on the BBC Sunday Politics show he would quit after a vote of no confidence by the NEC, he said: "I could do but I shan’t. I won’t."
And he said he would "remain in contact" with Ms Marney even if their romantic relationship was not to continue.
Speaking to Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics: “It’s time that the party moves on. The national executive needs to realise that by pursuing an action against me they are actually undermining the party further.”
Top Ukip figures have been lining up to urge Mr Bolton to stand down as the pressure mounted over the Jo Marney scandal.
MEP Gerard Batten told the BBC: "On Monday if Henry is still the leader of this party then we are going to lose members, activists, branches and donors - and this jeopardises the very existence of our party."
Fellow MEP Patrick O'Flynn told the broadcaster: "There's no doubt the party is drinking in the last-chance saloon...
"If we get wiped out again in the district elections too, then maybe people are going to have to get round the table and say: Is the electorate trying to tell us something and is that 'thank you very much and goodnight'?"
Jonathan Arnott, an MEP and former Ukip general secretary, quit the party on Friday and urged Mr Bolton to stand down in an outgoing blast.
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