SOME of UKIP’s top figures will be in Clacton next week in a bid to win the support of party members.

The contenders for party’s leadership will be attending a hustings at Princes Theatre on Wednesday August 24 starting at 7.30pm.

Party spokesman Gawain Towler said Clacton has many UKIP members as well as the party’s only MP, so it made sense to have the Eastern regional hustings in the town.

“We hope it is well-attended, the future direction of the country’s third largest party by vote is at stake,” he said.

Next Wednesday’s hustings is part of a nationwide tour, with the leader set to be elected by September 15, in time for the party’s national conference in Bournemouth during September 16 and 16.

Following the withdrawal this week of Jonathan Arnott MEP, the candidates are frontrunner Diane James MEP, Cambridgeshire councillor Lisa Duffy, who helped mastermind Douglas Carswell’s by-election victory in 2014, Elizabeth Jones of London and Philip Broughton, who was UKIP’s Hartlepool candidate in last year’s general election.

UKIP Clacton branch secretary Jack Parsons said he was attending the hustings but was keeping an open mind as to who he would support. Clacton MP Douglas Carswell also has declined to say who he would support, saying he needs to work with whoever is elected.

The hustings come in a big week for UKIP in Clacton.

The following day, Thursday August 25, the party will be celebrating its Brexit victory in The Tavern on Frinton Road, from 7pm to 11pm with a singer, raffle, dance and a free buffet.

This follows the Friday August 20 deadline for nominations for the 2017 Essex County Council elections.

Clacton branch chairman Tony Finnegan-Butler has received nine candidates so far for six seats.

“Most are unopposed but several will be contested,” he said.