11:31

A near complete collapse in support for Ukip, which saw all of its MEPs lose their seats, has cast doubts over whether the party will continue as a viable political entity.

The pro-Brexit party suffered a drop of more than 24 percentage points in its vote share as supporters deserted it in droves for the Brexit party, now led by the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.



Ukip’s current leader, Gerard Batten, lost the seat he has held since 2004 in the European parliament’s London constituency, where the party finished in seventh place.



Gerard Batten, right, flanked by the Ukip candidates Mark Meechan and Carl Benjamin, at a press conference in April. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/AFP/Getty Images

Batten, who has increasingly led the party towards embracing far-right positions, can look forward however to drawing a pension from the European Union budget, which pays MEPs a pension of 3.5% of their salary for each year worked.



In the South West, once a stronghold for the party and where it won two seats in 2014, the party received just 53,739 votes. Its failed candidates there included Carl Benjamin, a self-styled provocateur and alt-right YouTube personality who was second on its regional list, and was being investigated by police for speculating about whether he would rape the MP Jess Phillips.



While Batten was keeping a low profile on Monday, the party’s Twitter account congratulated Farage and the Brexit party, adding that it had been “a bad night for Ukip but a good night for the country”.



“It’s time for reflection and planning and figuring out how we can all best serve our country.”



Those speculating that the result would mean the end of the party, which had 24 MEPs elected in 2014, included its former deputy leader David Bannerman. Suzanne Evans, a former deputy chair, had told the BBC that the collapse of the Ukip vote had come as no surprise after Batten had led the party in a “very nasty far-right direction”.

