Arise Lord Leave? It will never happen, claims Nigel Farage

The current temporary leader of Ukip has scoffed at plans to make him a Lord, saying "it will never happen".

All three candidates in the Ukip leadership race - Paul Nuttall, Raheem Kassam and Suzanne Evans - say that they will campaign to secure a seat in the House of Lords for Nigel Farage if elected.

Mr Farage, who has unsuccessfully stood for election to the House of Commons seven times, would be at the top of a list of potential peers presented to Theresa May, Mr Nuttall said.

"If Ukip are offered positions in the House of Lords, the first name on that list will be Nigel Farage," he told the Sunday Times.

Ms Evans said that it is an "outrage" that Ukip are not allowed to appoint peers. Ukip currently have three representatives in the House of Lords - Lord Pearson, Lord Willoughby de Broke and Lord Stevens - who are all defectors from other parties.

"If Nigel wants a seat in the House of Lords, I will campaign like stink for that," Ms Evans added.

Both Ukip and the Green Party, who together received 16% of the total votes cast in the 2015 General Election, have campaigned for greater representation in the Upper House.

"If the Lords is to retain legitimacy, then it has to have at least a pretence of some sort of proportionality," Douglas Carswell, the Ukip MP for Clacton, told the Guardian.

"The total number of people who voted Green or Ukip in the general election is greater than the total number of people who voted Liberal Democrat by a long chalk, and yet there is a vast number of Lib Dem peers."

However, Mr Farage, who is currently the acting head of Ukip having stepped back in following the resignation of Diane James, was sceptical about the possibility of gaining a seat on the Lords' red benches. "It will never happen," he bluntly told Sky News.