The Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, says he is standing by a senior MEP in the party who described Islam as “death cult”.

Ukip’s Brexit spokesman, Gerard Batten, prompted outrage by saying non-Muslims should have a “perfectly rational fear” of a faith he characterised as a “death cult” steeped in violence in a blogpost in March.

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Nuttall dismissed Batten’s comments as a mistake and said he had not yet challenged the MEP about them.

Asked if he stood by Batten, Nuttall said: “Yes I do actually, because he’s brilliant on Brexit … but he’s just got his terminology wrong here. I wouldn’t use that kind of language. Islam certainly isn’t a death cult.

“There is a problem obviously with Islamic fundamentalism. I have called that a cancer within our society, and I stick by every single word I’ve said on that. He wrote this in the wake of the terror attack in Westminster. I think he is probably talking about Islamic fundamentalism.”

Nuttall said it was not his role to rebuke Batten for his comments. “I haven’t had a conversation with him as of yet, but I will be having conversations.”

Pressed on why he had not yet challenged Batten, Nuttall said: “That is the party’s chairman’s job. It is not the leader’s job. It is the party’s chairman who deals with those kind of things.”

Nuttall conceded that last week’s local election results were not good for Ukip and if he pretended otherwise he would sound like Saddam Hussein’s information minister. “I’m not going to come on the show here and do a ‘Comical Ali’ impression and say everything was great on the day. It wasn’t.”

Ukip won just one council seat in the election. Nuttall conceded that Theresa May’s rhetoric against the European commission president on the eve of the poll, helped the Conservatives pick up Ukip votes.

“We knew they were going to be the most difficult local elections. It was made doubly difficult because the prime minister called a general election in the middle and people went out and voted on national issues, not local issues,” he said.

“And obviously what happened the day before the local elections, when she went out on to the steps of 10 Downing Street and had that fight with Jean-Claude Juncker, made it even more difficult.”



Nuttall said the party’s target in the election was just to remain relevant: “What Ukip has got to do in this election is stay on the pitch, hold its nerve. Ukip has to be there as the guard dogs of Brexit.”

The Ukip leader also repeated that he would not resign if the party failed to win a seat in the election.