Ukip’s deputy leader, Paul Nuttall, is emerging as the figure mostly likely to be able to fill the void created by leadership frontrunner Steven Woolfe’s sudden departure, senior figures within the party have told the Guardian.
Nominations to take over from Diane James, who stepped down earlier this month after 18 days as leader, opened on Tuesday, with hopefuls having until 31 October to gather the required nominations before a members’ vote.
Woolfe, a barrister-turned-MEP who missed out on the last leadership election after filing his nomination papers 17 minutes late, had been the favourite to replace James, but quit Ukip on Monday, saying the party was ungovernable and was in “a death spiral”.
Jonathan Arnott, also a Ukip MEP and a member of its national executive, said the party had to regroup after the recent weeks of turmoil.
“We need a unity candidate now, who can appeal across the party and bring everyone together, and recognise the huge strengths Ukip can have if we talk about what we’re for rather than what we’re against,” he said.
Arnott said Nuttall, who is also a MEP, was “uber-qualified for the role”. He said: “Paul is the candidate who has the necessary experience, both inside and outside the party.”
Nuttall also did not take part in the election won by James, and has yet to declare whether he will this time. Friends say he is weighing up whether to put himself and his family through the public scrutiny that comes with the role.
But one senior Ukip source said they believed Nuttall was now leaning towards running, and that if he did he would be the clear favourite.
“Everyone’s waiting for Paul,” the source said. “If Paul stands, which I think is very likely, then he is the one who will knit the people together. And that’s what we need. We can meld the party together in a way that, frankly, no one else can.”
A series of alternative candidates have put themselves forward as leader, including David Coburn, who said he wanted to ensure Theresa May “walks the plank on Brexit”.
“We’re a libertarian party and when you take the lid off that, there’s a lot of excited people who jump up and down a bit,” Ukip’s MEP for Scotland said in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “We just need to get a grip of ourselves and sort ourselves out and I hope to be trying to do it myself.”
Among other likely candidates are Raheem Kassam, a rightwing journalist who told the BBC this week he would probably support Donald Trump for US president, and Suzanne Evans, a former Tory councillor viewed with suspicion by some in Ukip.
Another Ukip source said such options could push Nuttall to stand: “If Paul realises that without him the party faces a choice between Raheem Kassam and Suzanne Evans, I think he will realise where his duty lies.”
Woolfe left the party after an altercation with fellow Ukip MEP Mike Hookem at the Strasbourg parliament and subsequent seizures led to him being taken to hospital. The findings of an internal party inquiry into the clash is expected to be released on Thursday.
The new leader is scheduled to be announced on 28 November. Another Ukip MEP, Bill Etheridge, said he hoped the election would be a chance for a proper debate in the party.
“What I’m hoping this time is we can settle which way we’re going as a party, and then unite round whoever leads, with policies we can go and sell to the people. Not just Brexit – there’s got to me more than that,” he said. “This is a pivotal point.”
