Arnott joined UKIP in 2001, and stood in the 2004 and 2009 European elections, being the party's No.2 list candidate in the Yorkshire and the Humber region on both occasions. Until 2008 he was the part-time local elections co-ordinator for the party, working with 300 candidates to increase the number of UKIP councillors. At the 2008 UKIP conference, Arnott was unveiled as the new party General Secretary. Arnott resigned as General Secretary—after six years in the position—in August 2014.
UKIP leadership bid In July 2016, Arnott launched his bid to become
leader of UKIP following the resignation of
Nigel Farage. He gained the support of
Yorkshire and the Humber MEP's
Jane Collins and
Mike Hookem. Arnott said he wanted to appeal to the millions of voters who did not support UKIP in the previous year's general election but backed Brexit in the EU referendum. He withdrew from the contest in August, acknowledging he couldn't win and saying he refused to be controversial just to grab headlines.
2017 leadership election During the
2017 UKIP leadership election Arnott repeatedly warned that far-right entryists had signed up as members of UKIP in an attempt to take over the party by electing
Anne Marie Waters as the next leader. He said that UKIP would be on the verge of dying if this attempt was not thwarted and said that he "could not under any circumstances support Anne Marie Waters". losing his
deposit. Arnott was then selected to contest the
Sheffield South East constituency for the
2010 general election. Just before the election, he took part in the second half of a
BBC Radio 5 Live debate on crime with
Alan Johnson,
Chris Grayling and
Chris Huhne. He spoke four times, calling for a reduction in police bureaucracy, abolition of jail sentence remission and rehabilitation of offenders. Arnott came fifth with 4.6% of the vote, losing his deposit but increasing the UKIP vote by 0.2%. In the
2015 general election, he was the UKIP representative in the BBC
Daily Politics Education Debate and in the young people's
Newsbeat debate on the economy and housing. He stood for the
Easington constituency–the constituency in which he lived–coming second in the safe Labour seat with 18.7% of the vote, ahead of both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates. Following the 2015 general election, Arnott accused the party of peddling a "toxic message" and "banging on" about immigration which he said lead to "self-inflicted" disappointing results. He also criticised the party's candidate selection process which allowed people with what he called "abhorrent" views to represent the party.
2016 EU referendum Arnott was one of the most vocal internal critics of the infamous
UKIP "breaking point" poster that was unveiled in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum. He described this as "dog-whistle politics". He said it was "heartbreaking" that on the campaign trail he had to plead with people who perceived the poster as racist not to abandon their intention to vote Leave. He believed this poster lost a lot of votes for the Leave campaign. coming fourth with 11.54% of the vote. At 97.23% his Parliamentary voting record is substantially higher than that of all other UKIP MEPs, although he also votes against the Party whip more than any other UKIP MEP. On 1 March 2018 Arnott was one of three UK MEPs who voted against a motion to encourage national parliaments to ban "gay conversion therapies".
Britain Beyond Brexit In June 2017 Arnott published a document called 'Britain Beyond Brexit' which sets out an alternative policy platform and vision for the future of UKIP. This document was a radical departure from the 2017 UKIP manifesto.
Resignation as General Secretary and Constitutional Affairs spokesman In 2017 UKIP revealed a new 'integration agenda' which proposed the banning of Muslim face-coverings in public, disbanding Sharia councils and physical checks on young girls believed to be at risk of female genital mutilation. Arnott stated that he had watched recent events with "disappointment, bordering on despair" and warned that the party was heading in a "bland and anti-Muslim" direction. He said that "hardline anti-Islam nonsense" and the "crass" integration agenda made it very difficult for people to vote UKIP. On 9 June he resigned as General Secretary and Constitutional Affairs spokesman.
Resignation from UKIP On 19 January 2018, Arnott announced his resignation from UKIP. ==Personal life==