Ukip’s Gerard Batten has hinted that he may stand down from his position as party leader next April, possibly paving the way for Nigel Farage to stand.

Speaking to Dan Wootton on the talkRADIO drivetime show, Batten said he’d like to see Farage run for a seat in parliament.

“The best thing that I’d like Nigel to do is announce he’s going to run for a seat in parliament for Ukip because I’d love to see him on the floor of the House of Commons and on Parliament Green being interviewed.” he said.

Batten: 'I'll stay until April'

“What if he wants the leadership back?” asked Wootton. “Would you give up the leadership for Nigel?”

“No, I’m not going to give it up,” Batten responded.

“I told the members I’d do it for a year if it was an uncontested election, to sort the mess out in the party.

“I’ve made pretty good progress with that, I’ll stick to my word for the members and stay until April.”

“And in April, Farage could take over again if he wants to?” Wootton asked.

“There’ll be a leadership election, then anybody in the party who fulfils the criteria will be free to stand for election,” Batten said.

Farage previously told Jeremy Kyle on talkRADIO that he’s been thinking about returning to frontline politics “for about a year.”



'War in the Cabinet'

He also described the situation in government over Brexit as “war”, and criticised Chancellor Philip Hammond’s claims that Brexit could be negative for the economy.

“We’re seeing a relentless propaganda campaign telling us it’s all too difficult and it mustn’t happen,” he said of Brexit.

"What I fear is what the government is doing - and Philip Hammond is a Remainer, Mrs May’s a Remainer - is that they’re leading us towards a situation where we’ll leave in name but not in reality and we’ll end up paying the EU a lot of money, obeying a lot of their laws and open borders, and if we end up in that situation we might as well have not bothered with the referendum in the first place.

“There is a war going on in the Cabinet and the Conservative party, because the people in control don’t really want to leave anyway, it’s only a minority of MPs and politicians that do.”