Nigel Farage deserves to be made a duke, says Neil Hamilton

Douglas Carswell allegedly tries to stop former leader getting peerage

Nigel Farage deserves to be made a duke, according to Ukip's leader in Wales, Neil Hamilton.

Mr Hamilton told the BBC's Daily Politics: "I would say Nigel deserves a peerage. I'd say he deserves a dukedom for the role that he's played in getting us out of the EU."

Mr Hamilton had been asked about reports that the party's sole MP, Douglas Carswell, had tried to block the former Ukip leader's efforts to gain a peerage.

Relations between Mr Farage and Mr Carswell have been strained in recent days, with the former Ukip leader calling the MP a "Tory party posh boy" who was afraid of talking about immigration.

Tensions in the wider party have also been raised by leader Paul Nuttall's loss in a Stoke-on-Trent by-election, which has revived speculation that the party is in a downward spiral.

But Mr Hamilton told the programme: "This is a wholly confected crisis, if it is one.

"Well have you seen much of that, have we [sic] Douglas Carswell has been working against Ukip since the general election is preposterous.

"This is a grudge match which Nigel's had against Douglas for a very long time.

"Douglas is an independently minded chap and grown-up political parties should be able to copy with personal differences."

Mr Farage on Wednesday insisted he had no desire to sit in the House of Lords in the future.

“I would not want a peerage," he said, adding: "If something else came along, I might accept it but I would not want a peerage.

“I’m still leading a group in the European Parliament and once Article 50 gets declared [at the] end of next week possibly, there’s going to be a big job to do.”