Shrewsbury Ukip candidate Suzanne Evans to run for London mayor
She may have failed to wrestle Shrewsbury from the Conservatives, but senior Ukip figure Suzanne Evans has now set her sights on an arguably bigger prize - the city of London.
The Ukip deputy chairman, who has had run-ins with the party leadership in recent months, said Nigel Farage was "very pleased" that she had put her name forward to be its candidate for London mayor next year.
But Ms Evans, who took a 14.4 per cent share of the Shrewsbury & Atcham result last May, polling 7,813 votes, said she did not expect to be running the city in the immediate future.
"I think, let's be realistic, I don't think London is going to have a Ukip mayor any time soon," she said, but added: "You never know, I could be very lucky."
Ms Evans said it was "time for London to have a different view, a different approach".
"The Ukip vote is growing quite strongly in London, we are doing increasingly well in the the general election, we did very well in the European elections and I think there are a growing amount of people in London who want to see things from a Ukip perspective," she said.
"London is one of the areas of the country that is very much impacted by EU regulation, which hampers small businesses being developed, it's hampered by immigration which makes finding a job very difficult and finding housing very difficult.
"I think Ukip will have a fresh voice to bring to some of the issues that affect London."
In June Ukip was forced to insist that Ms Evans has not been sacked as a spokeswoman despite a leaked internal email ordering press officers to keep her off the airwaves and she was caught up in feuding within the party after Mr Farage resigned and was then reinstated as leader following the general election.
But Ms Evans insisted there were no difficulties with the leadership over her ambitions in London: "I usually have the support of Nigel Farage. I think there was a lot of nonsense talked about over the general election, a lot of rumours flying around that simply weren't true.
"In fact I have spoken to him about it and he is very pleased that I am standing, or putting myself forward anyway."
She will face a challenge for the mayoral nomination from Ukip's culture spokesman Peter Whittle, who has already declared his intention to stand.
