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Former Ukip leader Henry Bolton on Nigel Farage, Reform fears and his infamous affair with Kent glamour model

There are few men on Earth who have helped govern occupied countries, had two Russian wives, and had their leadership of a political party scuppered by their relationship with a glamour model. Henry Bolton OBE is one such man.

The Folkestone resident served as the leader of Ukip from September 2017 to February 2018, before being deposed by his own party in a storm of controversy surrounding his then-girlfriend Jo Marney. We sat down with him to find out about his life and times before and since…

Henry Bolton sat down with KentOnline at the Burlington Hotel in Earls Avenue, Folkestone. Picture: Barry Goodwin
Henry Bolton sat down with KentOnline at the Burlington Hotel in Earls Avenue, Folkestone. Picture: Barry Goodwin

“I don’t like to be pigeonholed – on one issue I might be on what many people consider to be the right, another one on the left, and another in the centre,” says Henry Bolton.

One of Ukip’s numerous leaders after the departure of Nigel Farage, many would assume him to be a fire-breathing, EDL-adjacent far-right winger, but he comes across as anything but.

Some pundits have sought to map coffee choices onto political positions, with much ink spilled and tweets sent about the wokeness or otherwise of matcha lattes, iced chai frappucinos, and so on. Mr Bolton clearly has no such hang-ups, and asks the barista of the Bay Tree Bar & Grill if they do coconut cappuccinos. They don’t, and he settles for a normal one.

The bar of the Burlington Hotel in Folkestone appears to be a regular haunt of his. Halfway through our conversation he exchanges greetings with a tracksuited man on crutches who walks through the bar, apparently the manager.

Mr Bolton wears the traditional attire of the right-wing country gentleman - a green blazer over a chequered shirt and brown Barbour fleece. But if he has the accompanying Range Rover, he must not take it out much, as his day-to-day vehicle is a Fiat 500.

He was born in what was then the British colony of Kenya in March 1963, months before it became an independent state. His grandparents had moved there after the First World War to found a chilli farm. In 20th century fashion, he pronounces it “Keenya.”

Seeking “a sense of adventure to go out, drive tanks, fly helicopters and do all sorts of acts of daring”, Mr Bolton joined the Army at 16 years old, and spent most of his adult life in it or adjacent fields.

“I just wanted to get into the Army - I didn’t care whether I was an officer or not.” After a stint in the Territorial Army and Thames Valley Police, he went back into foreign service in the late 1990s - first in charge of an intelligence unit during the Nato intervention in Bosnia.

After Bosnia he was sent to Kosovo. “I saw more action in that five months than I did in the entire rest of my career,” he said.

Henry Bolton as a child with his family's bodyguard in Kenya
Henry Bolton as a child with his family's bodyguard in Kenya
A young Henry Bolton riding Rufus the orphaned rhino in Kenya, alongside his mother
A young Henry Bolton riding Rufus the orphaned rhino in Kenya, alongside his mother
Henry Bolton spent much of his working life in the armed forces and international security
Henry Bolton spent much of his working life in the armed forces and international security

“People being shot next to me, people burning alive, watching villages being torched, negotiating hostage releases. There was no electricity in the province, so we survived on bread, smoked sausages and oranges, and reported back to London.”

Mr Bolton speaks with undisguised pride and earnestness about his long career across the armed forces, foreign office, Nato, UN and OSCE. He ended up administering a province of Kosovo, dealing with the Yugoslav spillover into Albania in that country, and observing ceasefire violations during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia.

Almost half of our almost three-hour conversation was about foreign affairs, and he effortlessly reels off the names of Balkan politicians and specific flashpoints in wars which most mainstream politicians have likely never heard of.

After a five-month European motorbike tour to clear his head of Yugoslav matters, he was sent further afield to Afghanistan. Owing to his relationship history, travels abroad and work with former functionaries of the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan, he speaks some Russian.

Mr Bolton has had the kind of successful military and diplomatic career that would play well in any political party. His pedigree would be prime for the ranks of the Conservatives in particular, but he stood for the Liberal Democrats in the 2005 general election, and joined Ukip in 2015.

“I’m eurosceptic but I’ve never been a little Englander, I’ve always believed in working across the channel on issues of common interest and concern,” he tells me.

“We’ve always through history been able to do that, we don’t need a supranational union for that.”

Mr Bolton’s time with the Foreign Office was ended slightly prematurely by his running for Kent Police and Crime Commissioner as the Ukip candidate in 2016 - their approval was rescinded and his contract not renewed. He came second to the Tories’ Matthew Scott.

Mr Bolton believes Nigel Farage’s flight from Ukip just when a Eurosceptic movement could have provided a vision of Britain outside of the EU was “totally irresponsible”.

Henry Bolton during his time in Afghanistan
Henry Bolton during his time in Afghanistan
Henry Bolton in France for the International Commando Skills competition in 1995
Henry Bolton in France for the International Commando Skills competition in 1995
Henry Bolton at a rally as Ukip leader
Henry Bolton at a rally as Ukip leader

He took the leadership of Ukip himself in 2017 after the resignation of Paul Nuttall, with the party in dire straits after that year’s general election. There were initially 11 candidates in the party’s leadership election and “most of them were absolute muppets frankly”, Mr Bolton says.

“I thought there's no one else who's going to do this. If Ukip’s not going to do it people will go off down these other roads to oblivion, the Conservatives aren’t going to do it, somebody’s got to step up to the plate.”

As a largely single-issue eurosceptic party, under Nigel Farage Ukip was instrumental in pressuring the Conservatives into calling the 2016 Brexit referendum, and the party came third overall in the popular vote in the 2015 general election.

However, after Brexit was decided in 2016, Mr Farage left the party for pastures new, throwing Ukip into a death agony which somehow still persists.

Mr Bolton’s own term as leader of Ukip was quickly fraught with problems.

“I met Jo [Marney] at a party lunch here in Folkestone – she was already a member of the party,” he recalls.

“We went for a couple of drinks subsequently, then we had a bit of a fling.” Things were difficult with his wife at the time. She lived in Vienna and he hadn’t seen her for six months, but they weren’t separated.

“Had it been the best of phases probably nothing would have happened between Jo and I – but it did – and it probably would have ended very quickly and been a flash in the pan, which I probably would have regretted.”

Henry Bolton with Nigel Farage, who led Ukip before him
Henry Bolton with Nigel Farage, who led Ukip before him
Henry Bolton led Ukip from September 2017 to February 2018
Henry Bolton led Ukip from September 2017 to February 2018
Henry Bolton has lived in Folkestone for more than a decade since his return to Britain
Henry Bolton has lived in Folkestone for more than a decade since his return to Britain

Mr Bolton was photographed in Folkestone with Ms Marney, who as well as being a Ukip member was a model almost 30 years his junior.

“Next thing we’ve (Ukip) just sent this statement out, and it said I’d split up with my wife in July, which was not true,” he remembers.

“I was horrified, but then the media got hold of my wife and asked her if she’d seen it. She said it was the first she’d heard about it which made me look like a s**t – and I was a s**t for doing it.

“My wife wouldn’t speak to me, my family were like ‘what the hell’. Jo and I bonded under fire in a way we probably wouldn’t have done otherwise, and we were very, very close, lived together were very much an item and had even discussed marriage.”

Compounding the adultery was the matter of some unsavoury messages sent by Ms Marney. The private WhatsApp texts, in which she said that Meghan Markle would “taint” the royal family, were leaked. The couple then disavowed the comments from the sofa of ITV’s This Morning, insisting they weren’t “private racists”.

“I think it's quite right that in my case I should be interrogated about ‘hang on a minute, you’ve got a wife and two children – what does that say about you?’, I think that’s fair,” Mr Bolton says.

“But when these messages came out and I'm being told I’m a racist, and I’m saying these are disgusting, appalling remarks, Jo’s resigned from the party.

“I try to be candid, I think it’s the only way. But f*** me if anybody tries to cross me that way again I’ve got plenty of ammunition now and I will fire back.” Mr Bolton’s name was quite roundly dragged through the mud in his own party for this affair - and it has clearly left an impression.

He and Ms Marney are no longer an item. When asked if it ended amicably there is a lengthy pause. “I haven’t seen Jo for three and a bit years probably. It started off very amicable, then not particularly, but not too bad I think.”

Henry Bolton and Jo Marney on ITV's This Morning after the messages scandal in 2018
Henry Bolton and Jo Marney on ITV's This Morning after the messages scandal in 2018
Henry Bolton has called Folkestone his home since shortly after he worked in Afghanistan. Picture: Barry Goodwin
Henry Bolton has called Folkestone his home since shortly after he worked in Afghanistan. Picture: Barry Goodwin

When it all went down, Mr Bolton said that Ms Marney was worth losing his leadership over. But since his departure Ukip has become reputationally radioactive, pushed to the wilderness of the extreme right by Mr Farage’s newer franchise: the Brexit Party, now called Reform UK.

Mr Bolton says senior leaders of Reform didn’t want him in the party, for fear of it looking like “Ukip two.”

“I think the real reason is Nigel knows he wouldn’t be able to control me; I will say what I say – if you like it you like it, if you don’t we agree to differ.

“Subsequently I’ve been asked for advice by the most senior leadership of Reform – I won't say exactly who.

“Reform is in my view a platform for Nigel.”

Despite Reform positioning itself as the party of disaffection with the mainstream, Mr Bolton cannot countenance backing them.

“My biggest fear is that Reform would win the [next] election; close behind is that Labour would win.”

He has very recently instead joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) - a small organisation largely known by people who spend a lot of time on Twitter, or who have been political obsessives since the party’s genesis in 1981.

Positioning themselves as left-leaning on the economy and socially conservative, Mr Bolton says he was drawn to the SDP by their penchant for detailed, pragmatic policy - which he says Mr Farage and his ilk are allergic to.

Despite all this, Mr Bolton is done, at least mostly, with frontline politics. He is mainly a commentator on Talk TV and GB News, and keeps himself busy.

“I pull in a little bit of money off social media – TikTok – sometimes that’s £1,600 a month, I couldn’t believe it,” he adds.

“I’ve got two little pensions that come in, I do a little bit of artwork and I’ve just set up a security company.”

Mr Bolton clearly still has a fire in his belly for politics, so perhaps one day if the SDP go mainstream he’ll be catapulted out of his semi-retirement.

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