Arron Banks adds pressure on incumbent after failure to win Stoke byelection – and says party is ‘run like a squash club’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Ukip’s biggest financial backer has branded the party leader “weak” after his failure to secure the party’s second seat in Westminster in the Stoke byelection last week.

Business tycoon Arron Banks said Paul Nuttall was “weak but potentially a good leader”, adding pressure on the successor to Nigel Farage, who has already faced questions on his continued leadership of the party.

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Banks was critical of Nuttall’s failed campaign in Stoke, admitting that claims he had lied on his website about losing close friends at the Hillsborough tragedy damaged Ukip’s prospects.

“You only need to look at Nuttall’s campaign, with the stuff on his website and everything. If you were starting a byelection campaign, the first thing you do is check all your stuff,” he said.

Banks said he would definitely stand against Ukip’s only MP, Douglas Carswell, and claimed the party was run like a squash club.

He suggested he could try to force Carswell, who has denied claims he wants to rejoin the Tories, to face a byelection before the expected 2020 general election.

“One of the things Douglas Carswell was very strong on was recall of MPs. Carswell said that if enough of the constituents voted for it, then their MP should be recalled and they would have to face a second election,” he told the Independent.

“So, if he’s really going back to the Tories, as people say he is, one of the things I’m looking at is going to the Electoral Reform Society and saying: ‘Let’s have a recall.’

“Even though it’s not legally binding, we might approach the voters of Clacton and say: ‘Look, for these reasons we think Douglas Carswell should be recalled.’ And that would be a neat idea, because it would be using his own idea against him.”

Banks called for major changes in Ukip, saying: “It needs to be fit for purpose now. It’s run like a squash club committee and that needs to stop.”