Ukip’s deputy chairwoman Suzanne Evans to take break from politics for breast cancer treatment
The politician revealed she is mid-way through a radiotherapy course at London hospitals and confident of full recovery
Ukip’s deputy chairwoman Suzanne Evans has revealed she has breast cancer and will be taking a break from politics.
The former leadership contender said she underwent surgery just a few days before Theresa May called the snap election - forcing her to put her recovery “on hold”.
Ms Evans said she is confident of making a full recovery but will stay away from “active politics - at least until the autumn”.
Her illness rules her out of replacing Paul Nuttall as Ukip leader following his resignation over the party’s disastrous election.
Ms Evans, who is mid-way through a course of radiotherapy at the Royal Marsden and St George’s hospitals in London, wrote on Facebook: “I am being looked after amazingly well and feel incredibly lucky to have had my cancer diagnosed at an early stage. I expect to make a full recovery.”
The deputy chairwoman came a distant second in November’s leadership contest but was touted as a potential successor following Mr Nuttall’s resignation last week.
Despite being half way through treatment Ms Evans wrote the Ukip election manifesto, which pledged to reduce net migration to zero within five years, vowed to ban the burka and pitched the party as the “guard dogs of Brexit”.
But yesterday it emerged that Mr Nuttall appeared in ITV’s key leaders’ election debate before even reading the full manifesto.
In the debate Mr Nuttall said Ukip would cut class sizes in primary schools - unaware that the policy had been binned.
Ukip’s constitutional affairs spokesman Jonathan Arnott laid into the manifesto yesterday.
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He said: “The 2017 manifesto was certainly well costed, but it lacked something: it didn’t really say very much of any consequence. It was a bland, insipid document with large chunks of policy simply missing from last time.
“Not that the manifesto was Paul Nuttall’s fault, of course: he went into the ITV debate with nobody having even done him the courtesy of showing him the entire manifesto draft.
“Paul found himself regurgitating visions of cutting class sizes in primary schools, blissfully unaware that the policy had – like so much else – been quietly binned.”
But Ms Evans - who wrote the manifesto - disputed Mr Arnott's claims and said Mr Nuttall read the manifesto in preparation for the debate.
