Paul Andrew Nuttall (born 30 November 1976) is a British politician who served as Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2016 to 2017.

He became deputy leader of UKIP, deputising for Nigel Farage, in November 2010 and the party's spokesperson for education, life skills and training in July 2014.

Nuttall stood unsuccessfully for UKIP six times in parliamentary elections between 2005 and 2017, of which his best result was finishing second in the 2017 Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election.

[4] He favours a ban on wearing burqas in public places,[5][6] has shown support for the reintroduction of the death penalty,[7][8] and opposed Labour's 2015 plans to include LGBT-inclusive sex and relationship education in schools.

[12] As a footballer, he was a member of Tranmere Rovers' youth squad in the early 1990s,[13][14] although he later backtracked on claims made in one of his own press releases and UKIP campaign material that he had played professionally for the team.

In the 2002 local government elections, he stood as a Conservative candidate in Derby Ward on Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, where he came second, winning 11.4% of the vote.

[24] In the 2009 European Parliament election, Nuttall was selected to head the UKIP list for the North West England constituency.

He visited the largest Romani quarter of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, and later commented that such slums should not exist in Europe and that minorities should be integrated.

He took part in a joint press conference with Binev, during which nationalist politician Volen Siderov interrupted proceedings to accuse UKIP of racism.

[39] In March 2017, it was reported that Nuttall had claimed excess European funding for his office in his constituency which he shared with Louise Bours.

[40] He announced in July 2016 that he would not stand in the September 2016 UKIP leadership election following the resignation of Nigel Farage and that he would step down as deputy leader of the party.

His campaign was compromised by his various questionable claims: that he was present and "lost close personal friends" at the Hillsborough disaster, that he had a PhD, had been on the board of directors at a vocational training charity, and had been a footballer for Tranmere Rovers, all of which emerged to be untrue.

[17] He has been investigated for possibly fraudulent claims that he was living in a house in Stoke-on-Trent, which was discovered to be empty and still advertised to rent, when he filed his nomination papers.

[50] Nuttall called for the establishment of an English parliament[4] and presented UKIP's new devolution policy at its annual conference at Eastbourne in September 2011.

[16] Nuttall has supported the reintroduction of capital punishment for child murderers, serial killers, and those who kill police officers.

[16] Nuttall opposed Labour's plans to include LGBT-inclusive sex and relationship education in schools in 2015, stating that "Rather than helping tackle problems of domestic violence and rape in future years, as given as another woolly reason for introduction, it is going to confuse and worry these little children".

"[58] In a 2016 interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Nuttall said that it was "obscene and unfair" that no UKIP politician had been appointed to the House of Lords by the government.

He promised to hold inter-party talks with Prime Minister Theresa May on the issue, saying that, if peerages were given in proportion to vote count in the 2015 general election, UKIP should have 26 lords.

"[16] Nuttall was later mocked by social media users, including Rhondda MP Chris Bryant, after mistakenly saying that Trump's love of the United Kingdom makes him an "anglophobe", a word which means the opposite.

[63][64] Upon becoming party leader, Nuttall told Andrew Marr on the Sunday Politics that "Maybe at some point, in years to come within this century we'll have to have this debate [over NHS privatisation], but it won't be under my leadership in UKIP".

[63][65] Following his 2016 UKIP leadership win, he said that his party would be "committed to keeping the NHS in public hands and free at the point of delivery".

[45] Nuttall drew criticism[67] for a tweet he made in the context of the Scottish National Party wishing to vote on foxhunting legislation which affected only England and Wales.

[citation needed] An article published by The Guardian in February 2017 questioned his presence at the disaster, stating that his school had tried to account for all pupils who had been present there, and he was not on their list.

Nuttall said the claims were true and presented a letter of support from his father, adding in a newspaper interview that he did not like to talk about the disaster.

[74] These comments contributed to Nutall's unpopularity on Merseyside, where he was frequently referred to during his tenure as UKIP leader as a "bad Bootle meff".