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Ukip is facing the prospect of fresh fighting after its leader, Gerard Batten, has made the far-right activist Tommy Robinson one of his advisers, eliciting indignation from his members the more influential and the appeal of Nigel Farage to dismiss him.
Only nine months after the party deposed Henry Bolton at the head of his girlfriend's offensive remarks, Farage had announced that he would write to the Ukip National Executive Committee to request a vote of no confidence in Batten.
An NEC member has since announced support for this initiative.
Farage, Ukip's most influential leader and still very popular within the party, condemned Batten's decision to give Robinson the real name of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, adviser on gang and prison preparation.
"Gerard Batten has this kind of fixation with Tommy Robinson and talks about Islam, leading Ukip into a position of activist political party of the street just when we have a Brexit betrayal by both the conservatives and the unions parties, where Ukip has the potential to reach among the electorate, the highest ever reached, "he said.
"It goes against everything I did as a leader, who said we would talk about immigration, the extreme forms of Islam. We will do it as a non-racist and non-sectarian party. That's a hole in all of this.
Farage added: "He [Batten] does not have the support of the party to do it. Even a poll among party members shows that his problems are very low on our list of priorities, so I will fight, try to save him [Ukip]but if it continues in that direction, on the electoral plane, it is over.
Batten has long been open to his anti-Islamic views, calling the religion "a cult of death" and suggesting that British Muslims be invited to sign a statement renouncing elements of the Koran.
Since he took over from Bolton in February, at the start of a one-year term, Batten has sought to push Ukip in a more severe direction, alarming many party members and inciting the resignation of a series of MEPs and other officials.
The changes were both political – Batten proposed a halt to immigration from Islamic countries and separate prisons for Muslim prisoners – and embracing Robinson, the founder of the English Defense League (EDL) that He compared to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
Batten sought to change party rules that barred former far right group members, such as the EDL party, from becoming members, but the NEC frustrated him. This week, the NEC announced that it had been told Batten to wait after Brexit to request a regulatory change.
Ben Walker, a member of the NEC, said Batten wanted "that Ukip be a way to attack Islam," and that this goal had lost support and party members.
Walker added that he supported Farage's appeal, saying: "I ask Gerard to step aside and allow the party to be provisionally led by someone else."
Patrick O'Flynn, Member of the European Parliament, tweeted that He shares Farage's concerns about Robinson, "and the vast majority of long-standing UKIP members I know." He added: "This problem arises very quickly now."
In Batten's response to Farage, the leader of Ukip attacked the NEC, tweeting: "It's the same NEC Nigel called" low-grade people "and" wetlands to dry out. "
Another fierce fight for control could be very detrimental for Ukip, who has dropped in the polls and is already on his fourth permanent lead since the resignation of Farage in 2016.
Robinson has been convicted of mortgage fraud and the use of a third party passport for his travels to the United States.
He has sought to reinvent himself as a "militant" against Muslim gangs who prepare girls for sex, which has attracted a large and fervent audience. He is awaiting the decision of his contempt trial after being jailed for posting live videos on Facebook from outside a gang case.
Critics of Robinson's actions describe him as an opportunist who used the grooming issue to promote a more general anti-Islam far-right agenda and to promote his personal brand.
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