Ukip chaos escalates as party figures turn on each other

Nigel Farage has moved to save his leadership of the UK Independence party, insisting he is the best person to lead the campaign to leave the EU.

Mr Farage faced a barrage of criticism on Thursday from senior people within Ukip, as the anti-EU party collapsed into infighting just days after winning a single seat at the Westminster election.

The Ukip leader defended his position last night, telling the BBC's Question Time: "I"ve always pushed for our country to have a referendum on our membership of the EU, and now would be the wrong time to go."

His comments came after a dramatic day which saw one of the party's biggest donors call for Mr Farage to stand down, and two of his closest allies resign.

The row began when Patrick O'Flynn, the party's election chief, gave an explosive interview to the Times, accusingMr Farage of being "thin-skinned" and negative in his tactics.

He was backed up by one of the party's biggest donors, Stuart Wheeler, who called for Mr Farage to stand down, saying it was "time for something quieter" ahead of the EU referendum, which David Cameron, the prime minister, has promised to hold before the end of 2017.

But Mr Farage insisted he was the right person to lead the "out" campaign, saying: "My support in the party is phenomenal. For Ukip to spend three months on a leadership campaign would be a huge mistake."

However, Arron Banks, another significant backer, took Mr Farage's side, as did Lord Pearson, the party's leader in the House of Lords, who tweeted his "full support".

Mr Farage has led Ukip on and off for the last nine years, taking it to its best results ever at last year's European elections and at last week's general election, when it won nearly 4m votes and finished second in 120 seats.

During that period, he has survived periodic party scandals, including several which forced Ukip candidates to resign during the election campaign. None of these have so far dented support - the party secured 12 per cent of the national vote last week.

Robert Ford, an academic and expert on Ukip, said: "This is not the end for Ukip, they have these bursts of infighting after every general election, this is nothing new."

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Mr Farage rescinded his offer to quit after what he called "overwhelming" support for him to stay. He then entered an unusually public row with the party's one MP, Douglas Carswell, over whether the libertarian party should accept £650,000 of government money.

The fighting has taken on an extra edge because the Conservative victory in last week's election has made a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU inevitable. Some in the anti-EU cause worry that Mr Farage could alienate undecided referendum voters if he leads the "No" campaign in the same uncompromising way he did the general election.

Mr Wheeler said: "The type of campaign that's now needed has to be slightly less aggressive and more towards winning over the people in the centre. The people who voted for Ukip will vote for leaving the EU anyway, and the people who need to be won over are the people who are really not quite sure. They need a friendly, undivisive approach."

Many of the disputes stem from the direction the party took during the election campaign, during which Mr Farage appeared to focus on appealing to its core anti-immigration support base. He told a televised leaders debate, for example, that too much money was being spent on treating foreigners with HIV on the National Health Service.

Mr O'Flynn has tried to shake up the party since becoming a candidate, and then an MEP, for Ukip. He comes from what he calls the "centrist" position within the party, and has particularly attacked Mr Farage's close advisers for representing a "Tea Party tendency" within the party. By the end of the day, two had left the party - Raheem Kassam, an aide to the leader, and Matthew Richardson, the party secretary.

But the more damaging criticism may be that of Mr Wheeler, who has given the party close to £1m in the past five years.

Balancing that however, is support for Mr Farage from Mr Banks, who told the Financial Times: "Patrick [O'Flynn] needs to look at himself before he goes around criticising others . . . If he had half the charisma of Nigel then fair enough but listening to Patrick is like watching paint dry".

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