Nigel Farage will not stand as a candidate in the general election and has admitted that Theresa May is on course for a landslide, The Telegraph can disclose.

The former UK independence Party leader said in an article for The Daily Telegraph: “I have decided that I will not stand in this election but fight for Brexit in Europe.”

The news comes two days after Paul Nuttall, the party's successor, said he thought Mr Farage "will stand".

If Mr Farage had stood as a candidate it would have been the eighth time he had tried to be enter Parliament as an MP.

Mr Farage, 53, said he had been tempted to stand for Ukip in Clacton after the former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell said today he would not stand in the June 8 general election.