BNP leader draws up exit strategy

The far-right MEP, who was soundly defeated in his own bid to become an MP in Barking, east London, on a disastrous night for the party at the ballot box, said he would go by the end of 2013.

"By then I would have been leader of the BNP for 15 years and that is long enough," he said.

He told a post-poll strategy meeting in the Midlands that the timing was to allow him to complete work on the party's administrative and political machine before handing over to a younger successor with less "baggage" and to concentrate on being re-elected to the European Parliament in 2014.

But the move is bound to be seen as an attempt to forestall any leadership challenge in the the wake of the poor showing.