In an attempt to woo the former lawyer's backers, Etheridge is attempting to position himself as the man who can give Woolfe a senior role.

"I wish Steven was involved. He's a good friend, he's an outstanding performer, he's one of the best talents in the party and I was looking forward to taking him on. We are the kind of people who would have had a really strong debate against each other, battled it out and at the end had a pint and a chat. I think it would have been a good opportunity for me to test Steven and I would have backed myself on that one in a friendly way.

We're not going to find out this time around but Steven is not going to go away. He's going to be around for many years to come. Unfortunately this time he has fallen foul of the rules which is frustrating for all of us but I hope he pledges his allegience to continue with the party as I am sure he will.

Certainly if I were to win I would be speaking to Steven saying 'look, let's get you on the front line, we need you mate'. I very much want Steven Woolfe involved in Ukip and one of the first conversations I would have, probably the second one after phoning Nigel Farage would be phoning Steven Woolfe to say 'come on mate, we need you, let's get you back out there, let's get you plugging away for what you believe in, your damn good at it."