Documents
seen by the Huff Post UK suggest Steven Woolfe was told on March 29 this year
that his Ukip membership had lapsed in December 2014 and had not been
renewed.
An
email sent to Woolfe in April asked him if he wished to renew as a standard
member, or join Ukip’s Patron Club – which carries with it a fee of £1,000 a
year.
According
to another document, Woolfe’s membership was officially “reopened” on July 12 -
eight days after Farage announced he was standing down.
If the MEP did indeed let his membership lapse, it would bar him from standing in the Ukip leadership contest as party rules require all contenders to have been members for at least two years. Huffington Post.
The frontrunner to succeed Nigel Farage as leader of the UK Independence party could be at risk of being disqualified from the election after it emerged he had failed to keep up his membership.
Those hoping to succeed Mr Farage, who resigned earlier this month, need to have been Ukip members for the last two years in order to be eligible to stand in the contest.
But the Telegraph has seen evidence that suggests Steven Woolfe, a Ukip MEP since July 2014, let his membership lapse from December 2014, and only paid for it to be renewed this March.
The North-West England MEP contributed just £175 to his party’s coffers during that time, according to an internal log of donations seen by the party’s National Executive Committee.
The money came in April when he bought a ticket for a fundraising lunch held at Lord’s Cricket Ground, but Ukip MEPs normally donate substantial sums to the party. Telegraph.
