Photographs have emerged of the UKIP boss and his young girlfriend Jo Marney looking as if they have rekindled their romance after he announced on Monday, January 15, that he had ditched her over remarks made about Prince Harry's fiancee Meghan Markle.
Mr.Bolton — the party's fourth leader in 18 months — shared an intimate dinner with the 25-year-old blonde, who is an activist for UKIP. The couple were spotted at The National Liberal Club in Westminster on Wednesday evening, January 17, before later leaving on the underground and then eventually on a train to Folkestone West, where he has a flat.
The 54-year-old politician — a former army officer, confirmed earlier that he had put his relationship with Ms.Marney "on hold" after UKIP bosses told him to choose between her and the leadership of the political party. The move came after she posted a series of unsavoury messages about Miss Markle who is due to marry Prince Harry, fifth in line to the British throne, at Windsor Castle in May.
In her first interview since the scandal broke, Ms.Marney told the Kentish Gazette: "I don't have a bad word to say about Henry. I still think he's the perfect gentleman."
Later, at 11.26pm on Wednesday, Mr.Bolton posted a series on the social media site Facebook claiming that he was the victim of an "organised campaign" to discredit his leadership.
The Mail On Sunday printed texts it said had been sent by Ms Marney, including use of the word 'Negro' and a message reading 'This is Britain, not Africa' during a discussion about the royal engagement.
Speaking about the break-up on Monday, Mr Bolton told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'As of last night the romantic side of our relationship has ended, we had that conversation last night when I returned from Yorkshire."
Kisses
Eye witnesses described seeing the anti-Brexit campaigner kissing Jo Marney while the pair dined in the exclusive club in the heart of Westminster. One club member said it did not seem like the pair were no longer an item.
One reportedly said: "They were holding hands and touching in a manner suggestive that they were very much still together. 'They drank at the bar, Henry was making his support for Jo very clear."
When the pair left the club together just after 9.30pm, the Ukip leader told waiting reporters: "I've just given an interview to somebody else today so just coordinating."
He said: "Jo's had some death threats against her today and so she wanted to speak to me about that. She's now going back to Maidstone and I'm now going back home."
As the couple left the club, Bolton launched a staunch defence of his girlfriend, saying she had been "exploited by my political enemies" and the controversy surrounding her remarks were beginning to "fade away."
"These are facts that are going to be out there in the coming hours so I've said very publicly that although the romantic side of our relationship is now over I'm surrounding Jo and her family in trying to put things back together again — absolutely," he said. "What's happened is that a young woman has been effectively exploited by my political enemies who feel they can't challenge me in open political debate on my leadership and on my politics. What I'd say to them is, you want to challenge my leadership, you want to challenge my politics do it in an open forum, do it openly, do not do it covertly and exploit anybody in doing so because to do so is despicable, particularly the way they've gone about it.
There have been widespread calls for his resignation after the text scandal first broke at the weekend.
Despite this, Mr Bolton made it clear he wanted to stay in place as the party again plunged into turmoil. He became Ukip's fourth leader in a year last September before facing raging controversy over his relationship with the 25-year-old who describes herself online as a glamour model.
Bolton left his wife for Marney — a move which some claimed went against the ‘family man' image he put forward in last year's leadership contest.