Nigel Farage has quit Ukip after 25 years in protest over new leader Gerard Batten’s ‘obsession with Muslims’ and his appointment of Tommy Robinson as an adviser on ‘Muslim rape gangs’.

‘And so, with a heavy heart, and after all my years of devotion to the party, I am leaving Ukip today,’ he wrote in The Telegraph. ‘There is a huge space for a Brexit party in British politics, but it won’t be filled by Ukip.’

Speaking later on LBC, Mr Farage accused Mr Batten of ‘turning a blind eye to extremism’ and attempting to turn the party from an ‘electoral’ force into a ‘party of street activism’.