Nigel Farage tonight sought revenge for the plot to oust him as Ukip leader as two of the party’s most senior figures lost their jobs.

Ukip deputy chairman Suzanne Evans, who wrote the party’s general election manifesto, was sacked from her role as policy chief.

While Patrick O’Flynn stepped down as the party's economic spokesman and made a humiliating apology to Mr Farage for publicly calling him ‘snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive’.

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Nigel Farage has come under fire after withdrawing his resignation as Ukip leader just three days after stepping down when he failed to become an MP earlier this month

Miss Evans was widely seen as a likely successor to Mr Farage, but became embroiled in a leadership row after she refused to sign an agreement not to challenge him for the leadership.

Mr Farage promised to stand down as Ukip leader if he failed to become an MP in South Thanet at the general election. After he lost he announced he would step down and allow Miss Evans to take over as acting leader, before a leadership election in September, in which he would consider standing.

But after Miss Evans refused to sign a letter that stated she would not run in the contest, Mr Farage withdrew his resignation.

Mr O’Flynn plunged the party into civil war by responding to the so-called ‘unresignation’ by accusing Mr Farage of being a ‘snarling, thin-skinned, aggressive’ man whose behaviour risked the party looking like an ‘absolutist monarchy’.

The comments sparked open warfare between factions of the party, with critics, including the party’s only MP Douglas Carswell and a major donor, calling for Mr Farage to take a break.

Tonight Ukip announced that Mr O’Flynn had stepped down from his role as economics spokesman, while Miss Evans lost her paid job as policy chief.

Mr O’Flynn told colleagues he felt ‘sincere regret’ for the hostile newspaper interview. Addressing a meeting of MEPs, he said: ‘I would like to express to colleagues my sincere regret at going public with my frustrations about the turn of events following polling day.

‘And more than that, I would like to apologise directly to Nigel for the phrase “snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive”.

‘This was a fragment of a wider passage about perceptions and is not what I think of him. Nonetheless, I should have known better than anyone what use would be made of phrases that were both unfair and unkind.

‘I am proud of what we achieved in the general election and am only sorry to have succumbed, as Roger (Helmer) put it with such impressive understatement, to public remarks that were 'unhelpful'.

‘I think it appropriate to stand down as economic spokesman, which I have done. I hope in the months ahead to be of use to the great campaign to persuade the British people to leave the EU, which is after all what brought me into politics in the first place.’

Ukip's economic spokesman Patrick O'Flynn (left) and policy chief Suzanne Evans (right) lost their jobs today after falling out with the party's leader Nigel Farage

Mr Farage said he had been ‘appalled’ by the remarks but it took a ‘big man’ to apologise and the row was now over.

He said: ‘Patrick O'Flynn came in person to tell me he had realised that he had made a mistake and, being the honourable man that he is, tendered his resignation as Ukip economics spokesman.

‘I accepted his resignation with some sadness, not least because he is very able and has been a great asset to the team. He continues to be a committed Ukip member and MEP.’

Ukip announced that Miss Evans, a former BBC local radio reporter who was seen as the star performer from the party’s election campaign, would finish her role as policy chief.

Miss Evans said: ‘It has been a great privilege to work with Ukip for the past four months to produce the 2015 general election manifesto.