Paul Nuttall resigns as Ukip leader after poor election performance

Eleanor Rose9 June 2017
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Paul Nuttall, leader of Ukip, has resigned after a poor performance at the election for the pro-Brexit party.

The news came after former leader Nigel Farage took to TV to defend Mr Nuttall's performance after vote share plummeted to two per cent.

The party's vote share had soared to 12.6 per cent back in 2015, when Mr Farage was leader, but its fortunes dimmed in the early hours of Friday as vote share collapsed and Mr Nuttall failed in his bid for a seat in Boston and Skegness, winning only 3,308 votes.

The Conservatives stormed to a 16,500 majority as Mr Nuttall failed to convince voters - despite the constituency having clocked the UK's highest pro-Brexit result of 75.6 per cent in the June 2016 referendum.

Mr Farage, who spoke earlier on Friday to say that Mr Nuttall was not to blame for Ukip's drubbing, tweeted to say he was "very sorry" the leader was standing down.

Veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil meanwhile asked Mr Farage in a live BBC broadcast if the pro-Brexit party was now "out, over, done, toast”.

Mr Nuttall said in a resignation speech that he believed Ukip would rise again to claim a "great future".

However it would not be with him as leader, and he will stand down with immediate effect, he said.

He said it was clear the party needed "a new focus and new ideas".

Mr Nuttall, who is MEP for North West England, has not had an easy few weeks after his campaign got off to a bad start when viewers mocked him for appearing to walk on the spot in a Ukip party political broadcast.

Mr Farage earlier warned that his successor had six weeks to prove himself during the snap elections and that the result would be a verdict on his leadership.

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