Ukip’s controversial and gaffe-prone West Midlands MEP, Bill Etheridge, has dramatically quit the party, claiming that its character has been “permanently changed” and is now viewed by voters as “a vehicle of hate towards Muslims and the gay community”.

The move is yet another blow to the Eurosceptic party, which has driven hard into far-right territory under leader Gerard Batten, who has actively courted anti-Muslim figurehead Tommy Robinson in an obsessional quest against Islam (which he calls “Mohammedanism”).

Etheridge’s resignation follows that of fellow MEP William Dartmouth, who abandoned Ukip last week, claiming it is now “widely perceived as both homophobic and anti-Islamic”.

Just how far has Ukip gone, if even Etheridge feels it’s too much? Consider his own sorry record.

He was forced out of the Conservative party after posing with a golliwog; he has supported banning the burqa; hosted Beatrix von Storch, a prominent member of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, who has a penchant for ugly anti-immigrant statements, for a public address to Ukip members in the West Midlands. He has also endorsed the White Pendragons, a far-right group best known for staging a failed “citizen’s arrest” of London mayor Sadiq Khan in January with a makeshift gallows in tow. Etheridge has even echoed Enoch Powell’s infamous 1968 speech and warned that multiculturalism “will lead to rivers of blood”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Bill Etheridge was forced out of the Conservative party after posing with a golliwog – and even echoed Enoch Powell’s rivers of blood speech.’ Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

But the former Dudley Ukip councillor and MEP went through an explosive falling out with Batten after Etheridge attended the International Economic Forum conference in Crimea in April.

Batten has undeniably taken Ukip into far-right territory. Speaking at a series of rallies held on Robinson’s behalf during his most recent stint in prison, Batten issued some of the most eye-wateringly extreme comments from any leader of a British party since former BNP leader Nick Griffin.

He told crowds at the July rally outside Downing Street that the prophet Muhammad was “a paedophile who kept sex slaves”, that the government “has become the enemy of its own people”, and that “both our houses of parliament are full of traitors, collaborators and quislings”. He even made a risible comparison between Robinson, the former leader of the violent anti-Muslim street gang the English Defence League (EDL), and Nelson Mandela.

This is not just a change in rhetoric. Batten has also welcomed a set of extreme online figures into the party, including fake news conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson, and Milo Yiannopoulos, the anti-Muslim activist and disgraced former Breitbart star who called feminism “cancer” and claimed that Muslim immigrants would bring “lamb chops, yoghurt and gang-rape” to America.

Batten recently endorsed Robinson joining the party, prompting former leader Nigel Farage – not usually a prophet of moderation – to warn that the move would be a “catastrophic mistake” and that the party could face “total and utter marginalisation”.

Batten has a long history of Islamophobia, advocating for many years now that Muslims should sign a special charter rejecting violence and claiming that Islam is a death cult. Ukip’s new manifesto, released at the recent party conference last month, includes policies that champion Muslim-only prisons and the abolition of the hate crimes category.

The party used to be obsessed with Europe, but now it’s obsessed with Islam. There is a danger that some voters, increasingly frustrated with the Tories over Brexit (despite former Ukip backer Arron Banks’ attempts to infiltrate the Conservative party), will look around for a more Eurosceptic party to support, particularly if we end up with a hard Brexit. Ukip has become a far-right entity, but public perception of the party lags behind this reality.

We didn’t expect to get Etheridge’s assistance in exposing Ukip for the extreme fringe group it has become – but every little helps.

• David Lawrence is a researcher at Hope Not Hate, where he monitors European radical right movements