Nigel Farage to stand for UKIP leadership

UK Independence Party MEP Nigel Farage confirmed today he is standing for the party's leadership.

Mr Farage led the party before standing down to concentrate on an ill-fated effort to oust Commons Speaker John Bercow at the General Election.

Despite suffering serious injuries in a plane crash on polling day in May, Mr Farage will enter the race to replace Lord Pearson of Rannoch, who quit as Ukip leader last month saying he was "not much good" at party politics.

A Ukip spokeswoman confirmed Mr Farage had announced his intention to stand for leader again at the party's conference in Torquay.

Mr Farage is Ukip's most high-profile figure and said last month that he would stand for the leadership if he felt he had recovered from his injuries.

Earlier today Ukip's interim leader Jeffrey Titford predicted that the party would eventually win a Westminster seat.

Mr Titford said his party is drawing support from a wide political spectrum, not just disaffected Conservatives.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about Ukip's parliamentary prospects, Mr Titford said: "We will get there in the end, don't you worry.

"I think we draw from all areas of the political spectrum. Three of our policies have been taken up by the three political parties, so it must be we are getting something right in our manifesto."