Pat Mountain (politician)

Mountain was one of ten UKIP candidates who stood for the South East England constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, which also included Piers Wauchope, another interim leader; none of them were elected.[1] Mountain has also stood for Brighton and Hove City Council thrice: as the sole UKIP candidate in the 11 July 2013 by-election at the Hanover and Elm Grove ward, in 2015 at the Hangleton and Knoll ward, and in 2019 for the North Portslade ward; she did not win in any of them.[2][3][4][5]

Mountain had retired by April 2019,[4] and was a member of the National Executive Committee when she was appointed interim leader on 16 November 2019[6] to succeed Richard Braine.[7] Mountain was the acting leader of UKIP during the 2019 United Kingdom general election,[8] where none of the party's forty-four candidates were elected to the House of Commons.[9]

On 2 December 2019, Mountain appeared on Sky News for an interview with journalist Adam Boulton; it lasted for eight minutes,[7] and was described by The Independent as "the outstanding TV interview of the year" and by the Evening Standard as a "car crash",[7][10] and there were reports that she was mistaken for the titular character of Catherine Tate's Nan.[7][11]

Her term as acting leader was due to expire on 31 January 2020, however due to the fact that no leadership election had taken place by then she continued in the role until April.[12] It was later confirmed in June 2020 that Freddy Vachha was the new leader of UKIP.