Jonathan Arnott

In July 2016, Arnott launched his bid to become leader of UKIP following the resignation of Nigel Farage. He gained the support of Yorkshire and the Humber MEP's Jane Collins and Mike Hookem. Arnott said he wanted to appeal to the millions of voters who did not support UKIP in the previous year's general election but backed Brexit in the EU referendum. He withdrew from the contest in August, acknowledging he couldn't win and saying he refused to be controversial just to grab headlines.[9]

During the 2017 UKIP leadership election Arnott repeatedly warned that far-right entryists had signed up as members of UKIP in an attempt to take over the party by electing Anne Marie Waters as the next leader.[10] He said that UKIP would be on the verge of dying if this attempt was not thwarted and said that he "could not under any circumstances support Anne Marie Waters".[10]

In the general election of 2005 he stood as a UKIP candidate for the Sheffield Attercliffe constituency, coming fourth overall with 4.5% of the vote,[11] losing his deposit. Arnott was then selected to contest the Sheffield South East constituency for the 2010 general election. Just before the election, he took part in the second half of a Radio 5 Live debate on crime with Alan Johnson, Chris Grayling and Chris Huhne. He spoke four times, calling for a reduction in police bureaucracy, abolition of jail sentence remission and rehabilitation of offenders. Arnott came fifth with 4.6% of the vote,[12] losing his deposit but increasing the UKIP vote by 0.2%.

In the 2015 general election, he was the UKIP representative in the BBC Daily Politics Education Debate [13] and in the young people's Newsbeat debate on the economy and housing.[14] He stood for the Easington constituency–the constituency in which he lived–coming second in the safe Labour seat with 18.7% of the vote, ahead of both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates.[15]

After the 2015 general election, Arnott accused the party of peddling a "toxic message" and "banging on" about immigration which he said lead to "self-inflicted" disappointing results.[16] He also criticised the party's candidate selection process which allowed people with what he called "abhorrent" views to represent the party.[17]

Arnott was one of the most vocal internal critics of the infamous 'breaking point' poster[18] that was unveiled in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum. He described this as "dog-whistle politics."[19]

He said it was "heartbreaking" that on the campaign trail he had to plead with people who perceived the poster as racist not to abandon their intention to vote Leave.[20] He believed this poster lost a lot of votes for the Leave campaign.[20]

In the 2011 local elections Arnott came second in the Woodhouse ward with 13.1% of the vote, behind the Labour party with 62.9%. He then led UKIP in the 2012 local elections, the party coming fourth overall with 10.25% of votes, up from 1.6% in the comparable 2008 local elections. Arnott himself finished second in Woodhouse ward with 22.1%, behind the Labour party with 60.2% of votes.

On 12 October 2012, Arnott was announced as the UKIP candidate for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in South Yorkshire[21] coming fourth with 11.54% of the vote.[21]

On 25 May 2014, it was announced that Arnott had been elected as UKIP's first ever MEP for North East England. Arnott used his acceptance speech on election night to highlight what he described as an election campaign that had been "marred by a campaign of hate, waged against UKIP by those who fear a realignment of British politics".

Following Arnott's election to the European Parliament, it was announced that he was to represent the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group on both the Committee on Budgets and the Budgetary Control Committee. Arnott's maiden speech was in Strasbourg in a debate on youth unemployment, where he highlighted how the North East of England had the highest rate of youth unemployment in the UK, with at least one in four young people unemployed. In the speech, he criticised Labour's support of the EU's flagship 'youth guarantee scheme' labelling it as a 'guaranteed failure'; highlighting previous criticisms from the International Labour Organisation.

Since his election Arnott has made more speeches in the European Parliament than any other British MEP.[22] At 97.23% his Parliamentary voting record is substantially higher than that of all other UKIP MEPs,[23] although he also votes against the Party whip more than any other UKIP MEP.[24]

On 1 March 2018 Arnott was one of three UK MEPs who voted against a motion to encourage national parliaments to ban "gay conversion therapies"[25]

In June 2017 Arnott published a document called 'Britain Beyond Brexit'[26] which sets out an alternative policy platform and vision for the future of UKIP. This document was a radical departure from the 2017 UKIP manifesto.[27]

In 2017 UKIP revealed a new 'integration agenda'[28] which proposed the banning of Muslim face-coverings in public, disbanding Sharia councils and physical checks on young girls believed to be at risk of female genital mutilation.[29]

Arnott stated that he had watched recent events with "disappointment, bordering on despair"[30] and warned that the party was heading in a "bland and anti-Muslim" direction. He said that "hardline anti-Islam nonsense" and the "crass" integration agenda made it very difficult for people to vote UKIP.[31]

On 9 June he resigned as General Secretary and Constitutional Affairs spokesman.[32]

On 19 January 2018, Arnott announced his resignation from UKIP.[4] In his resignation letter, he stated that he had lost confidence in UKIP leader Henry Bolton, who he felt was "not the right person for the job" - but thought no better of those "jockeying" for position in the party.[4] He added that UKIP had "shifted" its stance on religious and cultural issues to a degree he could not support.[4]

In April 2019, Arnott announced that he would not be standing for re-election as an MEP at the upcoming European Parliament elections, though he stated that he would be supporting the Brexit Party at that election.[33]