Former Ukip leader Henry Bolton still in relationship with Jo Marney

The former Ukip leader Henry Bolton, deposed by the party at the weekend following his relationship with a younger model who had sent racist online messages, remains in a relationship with her, he has said.

On Saturday, Bolton was removed as Ukip’s third permanent leader since Nigel Farage left the role in 2016, by an emergency meeting of the party’s members.

After the 25-year-old activist and model Jo Marney began a relationship with Bolton at Christmas, messages she had sent emerged, including ones racially abusing Prince Harry’s fiancee, Meghan Markle.

Marney quit Ukip and Bolton, 54, said they had ended their relationship. Nonetheless, the party’s national executive passed a vote of no confidence against him. When Bolton refused to leave, the emergency meeting was called.

However, when asked on Monday by BBC Radio Kent if he was still in a relationship with Marney, Bolton replied: “That’s a yes.” Asked about a possible marriage, he said, “Perhaps,” adding, “It’s not definite.”

Bolton will first have to divorce his wife, Tatiana Smurova-Bolton, with whom he has two daughters, aged four and 21 months. Their relationship ended after she learned about his liaison with Marney.

Smurova-Bolton lives in Vienna, where she works for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to support the family; the Ukip leader’s post is unpaid. Bolton also has an adult daughter from a first marriage.

Bolton told the BBC that while reports of his relationship with Marney had weakened him politically, a conflict with the party hierarchy “would have occurred anyway”.

He was critical of Gerard Batten, the Ukip MEP who has become the party’s interim leader. Batten is outspoken about Islam, which he has called a “death cult”, arguing that Muslims in the UK should be asked to sign a declaration renouncing parts of the Qur’an.

Bolton said: “Ukip won’t disappear but it is already moving significantly to the right. I think it is going to become impossible for the party to influence the Brexit debate.”