Steven Woolfe is quitting Ukip because the party is “ungovernable” and beset by “infighting and toxicity”.

Mr Woolfe has resigned from the party with immediate effect in the wake of the altercation with another member of the party which left him hospitalised earlier this month.

In an article for The Telegraph, he said that the party “lacks direction, it lacks a purpose and it lacks any semblance of professional organisation”.

Mr Woolfe said he will now sit an independent MEP in the European Parliament.