Farage: will not return to Ukip but could be interested in a breakaway

Nigel Farage is in talks about returning to frontline British politics with the launch of a new pro-Brexit movement if Ukip’s leader Henry Bolton is forced to resign.

Farage has spoken to friends, including his financial backer Arron Banks, about forming a breakaway party if Bolton, 54, loses a vote of confidence today at a special meeting of Ukip’s national executive committee.

Banks and Farage met for dinner to discuss the plans on January 11, only a few days after the committee began an investigation into Bolton’s private life. He is embroiled in a dispute over racist texts sent by his former lover Jo Marney, 25, a model, who described Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s fiancée, as a “black American” who would “taint” the royal family.