Paul Nuttall is expected to be named the new leader of Ukip on Monday, after a troubled contest to succeed Nigel Farage.

Nuttall, the former deputy leader, is the frontrunner alongside Suzanne Evans, the former deputy chairwoman and policy chief who wrote the party’s 2015 election manifesto.

If he wins, the MEP for north-west England will have to fight to maintain Ukip’s relevance as a political party following an exodus of supporters and members to the Conservatives after the Brexit vote.

Theresa May has embraced the cause of leaving the EU and has adopted key Ukip policies such as lifting the ban on new grammar schools.

However, the new leader may seek to exploit Eurosceptic fears that May will not be able to deliver a clean break with the EU that brings down immigration and cuts ties with the single market.



At the same time, there may be an opportunity to woo pro-Brexit Labour supporters in the north of England who were unhappy with their party’s campaign to stay in the EU.

Nuttall, a former university history lecturer, told the Sunday Telegraph: “We have this fantastic opportunity, which we’ve never had before to this extent, to move into Labour working-class communities and mop up votes.

“I think in some of these communities we can replace the Labour party in the next five years and become the patriotic party of the working people.



Nigel Farage with Diane James after she was elected to succeed him as Ukip leader in September. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

“You’ve got a Labour party whose leader refuses to sing the national anthem, whose shadow foreign secretary sneers at the flag, whose shadow chancellor says nice things about the IRA. That isn’t going to chime well with working-class people.”



The MEP has strongly rightwing views on crime, is open to a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty for child killers and opposes abortion.



Whoever is elected, the new leader will face a struggle to unite Ukip internally after a contest dogged by difficulties since Farage announced his intention to stand down as leader after the EU referendum.

The favourite to succeed Farage, Steven Woolfe, was initially disqualified from running because he submitted his application 17 minutes late, and Evans was not allowed to run because she was then suspended from the party.

Diane James, an MEP, was subsequently elected leader but withdrew from the process after signing her official forms with the worlds “under duress” in Latin. She later said she did not feel that she had the support of colleagues to carry out necessary reforms of the party’s ruling national executive committee.

A fresh contest was called, but Woolfe again had to withdraw from the running following a fight with fellow MEP Mike Hookem in the European parliament in Strasbourg over reports he had been in talks about defecting to the Conservatives. Woolfe ended up in hospital after collapsing and both men were investigated by the party, while the altercation was referred to French police by the European parliament president, Martin Schulz.



Steven Woolfe was the favourite for the Ukip leadership before he was floored in an altercation in the European parliament building. Photograph: ITV News

Nuttall and Evans entered the contest, along with Farage’s former chief of staff, Raheem Kassam, who later withdrew saying the path to victory was too narrow, and Peter Whittle, a Ukip London assembly member, who has also now withdrawn and given his backing to Nuttall.

A third remaining candidate is John Rees-Evans, the least known, who hit the headlines last year for claiming in 2014 that his horse had been raped by a gay donkey.

Ahead of the result, Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s only MP, said on Twitter it was exciting that Ukip gets the “chance to press the reset button”.

