'Farce' as Ukip leader Lois Perry resigns mid-election after just 34 days in role

Posting on social media platform X, Perry said she’d made the "difficult decision" after being hospitalised with pneumonia in April just weeks before winning the leadership contest.

Perry has described how she was left unable to breathe unaided, forcing doctors to place her in a high-dependency unit.

In her resignation statement, Perry said that after being "near death", she was stepping aside to "focus on my recovery".

The decision will be seen as a body blow by Ukip members who have watched their party struggle since the 2018 departure of former leader Nigel Farage to form the Brexit Party.

Since then Ukip has suffered in the polls, winning just 3.2 per cent of the vote in the 2019 election and failing to gain any seats.

Perry took over from former leader Neil Hamilton on May 13 after party members gave her a landslide 77.4 per cent of the vote.

Her sole opponent Bill Ethridge had served as a Ukip MEP and a Metropolitan Borough Councillor.

At the time Perry described herself as "forthright, confident and unafraid to enter this world".

She also made a slew of pledges to members, including "fighting wokeness" within the civil service, "controlling immigration" and "defunding the BBC".

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She also posted images on social media which showed her dining with Reform leader Nigel Farage.

Her resignation comes just a day after she officially endorsed former Conservative Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson, who is running as a Reform UK candidate for Ashfield.

Bill Ethridge told GB News: “Apparently Lois is unwell and I hope she recovers to full health soon.

“Personally I am extremely unhappy about what has happened and I feel that the party members have been let down.

“I think our performance in the general election was already damaged by Lois’s support for Nigel and Reform.”

It comes as Reform UK experiences a surge in the polls, with the latest YouGov survey placing it at 19 per cent, one point ahead of the Conservatives.

Meanwhile, the latest poll by Survation suggests Reform is on track to gain seven MPs.

The survey for Best for Britain, predicts the Tories will be reduced to just 72 seats whilst Labour will achieve 456, the Liberal Democrats 56, and the Greens just one.

Perry is currently standing as the UKIP candidate for Harlow where her campaign literature calls for "happy, healthy families".

She previously founded a company specialising in reputation management and campaigned for a debate on climate change through her group CAR26.

Despite her sudden departure, former MEP Diane James retains the record as UKIP’s shortest-serving leader, having quit after just 14 days in October 2016.

GB News has contacted UKIP and Perry for comment.