Ukip’s new leader reckons he “could kill a badger with his bare hands”

Killing a badger with your bare hands is not, as far as we’re aware, a requirement to be leader of any major political party. Not even Ukip.

However, in an odd interview, newly-elected Ukip leader Henry Bolton was asked in an interview with Russia Today if there was an initiation ceremony as part of becoming Ukip leader.

Bolton was asked, in jest, if it included eating an English flag, arm-wresting Terry Butcher, or hunting a badger and killing it with your bare hands. The former army officer laughed off the suggestions, but said of the badger killing: “I could probably do that. I reckon I could do that… but it’s not part of the initiation into being a leader of Ukip.”

The subject was brought up again when Bolton appeared on Sky News’ Sunday with Niall Paterson. 

Could @UKIP leader Henry Bolton really strangle a badger with his bare hands? #Paterson pic.twitter.com/c1J8dZWrrr

— Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (@SkyPoliticsHub) October 15, 2017

Paterson said the RT interview turned up as part of his research on Bolton, as he confessed he hadn’t heard of him before assuming the Ukip leadership. Bolton explained: “They gave me a few options, as ideas for an initiation ceremony into the leadership of Ukip.

“And the one that was probably most suitable for me was chasing a badger across Dartmoor, capturing it and then breaking its neck with one’s bare hands. Which was a slightly unusual thing.”

Slightly unusual is right.