But he added that he did not believe the vote share - currently between six and seven per cent – would fall away any further.

He said: “There will be some people who do feel the Conservative Party is not tough enough on immigration, doubt whether they will deliver the kind of Brexit they want or think they are too much of the establishment. So some of the Ukip vote will survive until June 8.”

Paul Nuttall, Ukip’s leader, failed to appear in public yesterday. In a statement he insisted the party was “the victim of its own success”.

He said: “It’s been a difficult night. Frankly, there is nothing they could have done in the face of a big national swing to the Tories.”

Mrs May’s anti-EU statement outside 10 Downing Street on the day before polling day helped to drive voters into the arms of the Tories.

He added: “If the price of Britain leaving the EU is a Tory advance after taking up this patriotic cause, then it is a price Ukip is prepared to pay.

“We are the victims of our own success and now we pick ourselves up and go on to further success in the future.”