Ukip leadership favourite Diane James boasts of ‘no skeletons’ but has had affairs with two married men
Frontrunner to replace Nigel Farage has boasted she does not have any skeletons in her cupboard
UKIP leadership favourite Diane James has boasted she has no skeletons in her cupboard – but it has emerged she has been involved in the breakdown of two marriages.
The 56-year-old MEP is a friend of Nigel Farage and the bookies pick to replace the outgoing leader as the head of the party.
When she kicked off her leadership campaign she boasted that as far as she knew: “There are no flaws, there are no skeletons in the cupboard and no bad news stories.”
But she has forgotten to mention how she spent three years as the secret lover of a senior Ministry of Defence official Ron Smith.
Mr Smith was a former RAF wing commander six years her senior who had become chief executive of the MoD’s Defence Secondary Care Agency.
Their affair emerged in 1998 when his wife Susan, who was also an RAF wing commander, was investigated by the Military Police over a financial matter.
The police interviewed Mrs James but there was no suggestion of any financial irregularity on her part.
She continued seeing Mr Smith for three months after his wife found out and he promised to end the affair.
He resigned from his job and she told the Mirror: “I can’t speak about it.
“The Military Police have told me not to say anything.
“This will ruin me."
By 2005 she had begun seeing another married man – John Forrest.
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Dr Forrest, who is 17 years older than her, lives with her in a £1million house in Surrey.
At the time they got together Mail Online reports he had been with his wife Jane for 32 years.
The Panama Papers show Dr Forrest, 73, had a company set up in the British Virgin Islands in 2005.
He is listed as a shareholder in Leparin Ltd, and the address given is the holiday home he shares with Mrs James in Provence, France.
The law firm in charge of establishing the company was Mossack Fonseca, the one at the centre of the Panama papers leak in April.
There is no suggestion Dr Forrest did anything illegal.
Mrs James went to Rochester Grammar School and Thames Valley University before working in private healthcare firms.
She was a supporter of the Tories until becoming disillusioned with the party and standing as an independent candidate in the ward of Ewhurst, Surrey, in 2007.
After deciding to join Ukip she became the party’s MEP for the South East in 2014.
Earlier this year she was appointed deputy leader and now is the favourite for the top job.
Mrs James's spokesman declined to comment on the relationships.