This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Gerard Batten, the Ukip leader, has insisted his party is the true voice of leave voters as he sought to counter an existential threat from Nigel Farage.

At a press conference to launch Ukip’s European election campaign, Batten, whose party has been reduced to a rump in the European parliament after defections to Farage’s new Brexit party, insisted Ukip still had a future.

It follows criticism from Farage, who said his former party had been “destroyed” by a “lurch towards extremism”.

However, as Batten tried to portray the party in a new light, one of the MEP candidates unveiled was Carl Benjamin, who had previously sent a “rape” tweet to the Labour MP Jess Phillips, and another was Mark Meechan, who was fined £800 in 2018 for filming a pet dog giving Nazi salutes.

Addressing the media in front of a group of largely unknown candidates, Batten said Farage would run his party as a “one-man dictatorship”.

“Ukip is the authentic party of Brexit, the true party of leave. The Brexit party does not have any candidates, it is not a proper political party.

“All you get from Nigel is rhetoric,” he said.

According to a YouGov poll the Brexit party is leading all other parties at 23% ahead of the European elections on 23 May, with Ukip trailing at just 6%.

Batten has hired Tommy Robinson, the English Defence League founder, as an adviser as well as inviting the two controversial YouTubers to stand as candidates.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Carl Benjamin, left, and Mark Meechan, both of whom are standing in the European elections, at the Ukip launch. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

During an unscripted speech, Batten occasionally corrected his own comments. “We will send MEPs to Brussels, not to get our snouts back in the gravy train … you don’t put your snout in a gravy train, do you? You put it in a trough. The trough is on the gravy train,” he said.

Batten walked out of a Sky News interview on Thursday morning after being asked to explain why Benjamin had “joked” about raping Phillips.

Benjamin, who uses the online alias Sargon of Akkad, joined Batten on stage at the press conference. He was asked about his behaviour in May 2016, when he sent a tweet to Phillips telling her: “I wouldn’t even rape you.”

Benjamin said: “I think we should treat women the same as men. That means if a woman is being a giant bitch and laughing at male suicide, I’m going to be a giant dick back to her.”

In fact Phillips has cast doubt on the idea of a “men’s day” but has not laughed about male suicide, which she has said is a serious issue.

Benjamin said he was standing for Ukip to campaign for free speech. “I’m not going to apologise for my crimes against political correctness, I hate political correctness,” he said to cheers from a small group of supporters.

In response, Phillips later tweeted: “Massive bitch aka feminist woman you can’t control. Diddums.”

Jess Phillips (@jessphillips) Carl Benjamin will forever have whatever career he has defined by me, he will hear my name wherever he goes. His whole political life defined by little feminist Jess, that my friends is comedy.

She also tweeted: “Carl Benjamin will forever have whatever career he has defined by me, he will hear my name wherever he goes. His whole political life defined by little feminist Jess, that my friends is comedy.”

EU elections: Farage will win unless Labour backs remain, says Beckett Read more

Batten was also joined on stage by Meechan, a Scottish comedian known online as Count Dankula.

Meechan said: “I want to protect people from having their rights infringed upon in regards to freedom of speech and freedom of expression by draconian and authoritarian laws.”

Just three MEPs – Batten, Stuart Agnew and Mike Hookem – are listed as Ukip members on the European parliament’s website.

The Brexit party has 14 MEPs listed – although Farage claims the support of two more.