Nigel Farage is trying to block Suzanne Evans from becoming Ukip candidate for Mayor of London with a covert campaign to install a less threatening, loyal party colleague in her place, sources have told Coffee House.
Ukip will select its mayoral candidate this weekend. Evans is the bookies’ favourite and the best-known outside the party. But it has moved from a one member one vote system within the London party for picking its choice for the mayoral elections to a private selection. The six-strong panel for the selection includes a number of Farage loyalists, including Chris Bruni-Lowe, Paul Oakden and Mick McGough.
Party insiders are furious that this panel seems to be set up to deliver the candidate the leader, rather than the wider party, wants. They allege that Farage is trying to install Peter Whittle, Ukip’s culture spokesman, as the mayoral candidate because he doesn’t pose the same threat to Farage as Evans does.
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