This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The resignation of three MEPs from Ukip over the appointment of the far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson as adviser has plunged the party into turmoil, forcing its leader to pull out of his European party group.

The leader, Gerard Batten, announced his resignation from the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group (EFDD) after an exodus of senior figures from the party, including the EFDD president, Nigel Farage.

Batten said he could not remain in the EFDD while Farage launched “continual attacks on me and Ukip in the UK media”.

On Friday Ukip’s former leader Paul Nuttall announced he was quitting the party, as did David Coburn, its leader in Scotland, and Nathan Gill, a Welsh MEP. Later, the London assembly member Peter Whittle, Ukip’s 2016 candidate for London mayor, also resigned.

Several other leading Ukip figures have also quit in recent weeks over the party’s lurch to the far right. They include the former leadership candidate Suzanne Evans and the MEP Patrick O’Flynn.

Nuttall, who led the party during the 2017 election, said Batten’s appointment of Robinson was a catastrophic error that would tarnish Brexit.

Farage quit the party on Tuesday, saying it had a fixation with Batten’s anti-Muslim policies.

The latest resignations mean more than half of Ukip’s 24 MEPs elected in 2014 no longer represent the party.

Nuttall, the MEP for North West England, said: “I am resigning because the party is being taken in a direction which I believe is harmful to Brexit. The association with Tommy Robinson will simply appal many moderate Brexit voters.”

In a resignation letter to the party, Coburn said he did “not run on an anti-Islam platform”. He added: “Unfortunately, this seems to be the direction that Ukip is taking, obsessing about this issue to the exclusion of all else at a time when we might lose the Brexit we fought so hard for.”

In his resignation letter, Gill said: “I can no longer belong to a party that switched its primary focus from Brexit to a foolish pursuit against Islam and promotion of Tommy Robinson.”

Nuttall made a similar point in his statement. He said: “The Tommy Robinson issue should have been shelved and debated within the party following Brexit – in line with the sensible decision taken by the national executive committee last month. The party leadership and my MEP colleagues have been aware of my views on this issue for some time.

“Putting Tommy Robinson front and centre, whilst Brexit is in the process of being betrayed, is in my view a catastrophic error. To conflate Brexit and Robinson at this crucial moment is to put the Eurosceptic cause in danger and I cannot and will not be party to that.”

Nuttall said he had made the decision to resign with an “immense amount of reluctance and regret, as I have worked tirelessly for the party for the past 14 years”.

When Nuttall was leader he stood by Batten when he described Islam as a “death cult”. Batten, who has also called for Muslim-only prisons, survived an attempt by Farage to unseat him last weekend.

While members made clear they did not want to allow Robinson, the founder of the far-right English Defence League, to join Ukip – he is in any case barred under current rules – a vote of no confidence in Batten was defeated.