Stephen James Crowther (born January 1957) is a former acting leader of the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

(UKIP). On 9 June 2017, he succeeded

Paul Nuttall Paul Andrew Nuttall (born 30 November 1976) is a British politician who served as Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2016 to 2017. He was elected to the European Parliament in 2009 as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate, and ...

who stepped down after the party failed to win any seats in the 2017 UK general election. Crowther had previously been UKIP party chairman, a position from which he resigned in July 2016 a few weeks after the

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. In 2014, as part of UKIP's efforts to avoid growing embarrassment from online racist comments by members, he advised members not to join

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. In late 2015, he was called the "absentee Chairman" by Matthew Goodwin in his sequel book on the history of UKIP. Crowther has been the UKIP candidate for North Devon three times. In the 2017 general election he polled the second-fewest votes in the constituency. He is a retired trade journalist and writer who ran an advertising agency in London. Considered as an interim leader of UKIP, Crowther said he would launch the process for the election of a more permanent party leader. He resigned from UKIP in December 2018.

Elections contested

UK Parliament elections

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Crowther, Steve James 1957 births Living people Leaders of the UK Independence Party UK Independence Party parliamentary candidates