Nigel Farage says UKIP is "at war" with the Tories after David Cameron failed to backtrack on his 2006 claim that members were "closet racists".

Mr Farage said: "We are at war with them because he had an opportunity to put right something deeply unpleasant that he said in 2006, he refused to do so."

His comments come after Senior Tory MP Michael Fabricant suggested UKIP might not field candidates in return for a promise of an in/out referendum on EU membership.

Mr Farage said in response: "If the Conservative Party, or for that matter the Labour Party made an absolute clear promise, written in blood, that they would give this country a full free and a fair referendum... then of course we'd sit round the table and negotiate it."

UKIP has recently hit the headlines after it emerged that Rotheram Borough Council removed foster children from a couple who were members of the party.

Education Secretary Michael Gove has since launched an investigation into the council who have said they will be "open" and "transparent" during the process.