Stuart Wheeler tries to pull of second leader coup

1:47 PM

Gary Gibbon Political Editor

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 14: UKIP leader Nigel Farage leaves the party's HQ in Mayfair on May 14, 2015 in London, England. Mr Farage is under new pressure after Ukip's campaign director Patrick O'Flynn said that 'Nigel Farage is 'snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive'. Last week Mr Farage submitted his resignation as party leader, following the general election, but remained in his position after the party's refusal to accept it. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Nigel Farage leaves the party’s HQ in Mayfair this morning

Stuart Wheeler on BBC Radio 4’s World at One is trying to repeat a trick he pulled off back on 22 October 2003 when he pitched up on Radio 4’s “Today” programme to say that Iain Duncan Smith had outstayed his welcome as leader.

Back then, Mr Wheeler’s intervention was the key brick pulled out of the wall. Back then, Mr Wheeler even managed to see the candidate he most wanted to see replace Mr Duncan Smith, installed as leader, Michael Howard. Today he wasn’t specifying who he wanted to take over.

Mr Wheeler said Mr Farage should’ve “remained resigned until the Autumn” but that now he had mis-judged his non-resignation there were a lot of reasons why he should disappear from the leadership.

Mr Wheeler said Mr Farage’s combative style could be a voter repellent in the EU referendum which many UKIP figures are now focused on. There’s long been a section of long marchers in UKIP who think Mr Farage himself got distracted by the UKIP phenomenon and is prone to lose sight of the original driver of the cause he helped to found: exiting the EU.