UKIP leader Henry Bolton echoes Trump as he refuses to go

Henry Bolton has refused to stand down as UKIP leader, despite a wave of senior party officials quitting in a bid to force him out.

The former Army officer, 54, said UKIP's main focus should be on supporting Brexit and that it should "drain the swamp" of those that had plunged it into infighting.

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He specifically targeted the party's national executive committee - its ruling body that unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in him on Sunday.

Mr Bolton said it had lost his confidence and that of members, branding it "unfit for purpose".

Announcing a purge of his critics from UKIP outside the hotel where he has been living in Folkestone, Kent, he said: "It is now time to put an end to the factional in-fighting within the party and to remove those who have been a part of that.

"In a single phrase, it is time to 'drain the swamp'."

The line echoes a popular chant coined by Donald Trump to attack the Washington establishment when he was running for US president.

Mr Bolton accused the NEC of "severely handicapping" UKIP's progress for several years - "as all recent leaders will attest".

But he vowed that making sure the Government did not "betray" people on Brexit was "the object to which I shall be directing all of my energies in the coming weeks".

Asked to respond to criticism from at least 10 UKIP spokespeople who resigned in protest at his leadership, Mr Bolton simply said: "No comment."

UKIP general secretary Paul Oakley responded with a post on Twitter of a depressed Garfield the cat cartoon captioned "sigh".

But Mr Bolton did get the support of Jo Marney, the girlfriend he dumped after offensive messages she sent were exposed.

Ms Marney, with whom he was pictured on a train after breaking up, tweeted Mr Bolton with a thumbs up emoji and the message "#FlushTheBog".

The UKIP leader left open the possibility of rekindling a romance with her in an interview on LBC.

"We're still in contact, of course there are strong emotions there, but we both need to sort our own private lives out," he said.

"So the romantic side of the relationship is off, certainly at the moment, and going forward, who knows what the future holds?"

The UKIP leader was being quizzed by one of his predecessors, Nigel Farage, who suggested the saga was becoming "cringe-making".

But Mr Farage later backed Mr Bolton and his bid to overhaul the party, saying it must "reform or die".

He wrote in the Telegraph: "His refusal to accept the NEC decision to quit, and his insistence on carrying out a full EGM (Emergency General Meeting), could provide a lifeline for UKIP.

"For this crisis is about more than Henry Bolton. It is about whether UKIP is fit for purpose."