UKIP party leader Gerard Batten speaks during the launch of their European election campaign in Westminster on April 18, 2019 in London | Leon Neal/Getty Images UKIP launches EU election campaign with swipe at Brexit Party Nigel Farage’s party is a ‘Tory-lite’ ego trip, says UKIP boss Gerard Batten.

UKIP leader Gerard Batten used his party's European election campaign launch on Wednesday to hit out at former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, calling his new Brexit Party a "safety valve for disaffected Tories."

Speaking at an event in Middlesbrough, Batten said UKIP was "a real political party" in contrast to the Brexit Party, which he said was a "wholly owned subsidiary of one man's ego" and an "autocracy" with "no members or structure," the BBC reported.

"UKIP is a party of ordinary people from all social classes and backgrounds. The Brexit Party is an alternative Tory Party. It is Tory-lite," Batten said.

The UKIP leader also pledged to get candidates elected on a policy of "unconditional and unilateral" withdrawal from the EU and accused Prime Minister Theresa May of making the country a "laughing stock."

UKIP dominated the last European election in the U.K. in 2014, winning more seats and votes than any other British party. It has since been consumed with internal turmoil, including a feud between Batten and Farage, who quit the party last year.

Batten's party is slated to win just four seats in the European Parliament election on May 23, and 5.5 percent of the vote, according to the latest polls. Farage's new Brexit Party is on track to win 18 seats, with some 25 percent of the vote, putting it in first place — slightly ahead of the Labour Party, on 24 percent.

The U.K. will participate in the European election unless the government ratifies the Withdrawal Agreement ahead of the vote. British MEPs would serve in the European Parliament until Halloween, the deadline by which the U.K. would be ejected from the bloc without the protection of a negotiated Withdrawal Agreement.