Ukip has been thrown into fresh turmoil after the party's deputy leader quit.

Margot Parker said Henry Bolton had left the party in "limbo" after refusing to step down as Ukip leader following his brief relationship with Jo Marney.

The party's immigration spokesman John Bickley has also stepped down.

Yesterday the party's national executive committee unanimously backed a vote of no confidence in Mr Bolton, who is based in Folkestone.

Mr Bolton has faced repeated calls to quit over offensive texts sent by his former girlfriend.

Ms Parker, who is also an East Midlands MEP, said Mr Bolton's "personal life took over the job he was elected to do".

She urged her leader to come to the conclusion to go "sooner rather than later."

In a statement she said: "I am resigning with a very heavy heart.

"I’ve spent the last few weeks wrestling every day with a very difficult situation.

I had hoped he [Henry Bolton] could ride this out but I came to the decision he could not.

His personal life took over the job he was elected to do and put the party in limbo."

Yesterday Piers Wauchope, a former Tunbridge Wells councillor who was the party’s election candidate in North Thanet in 2015, said too much damage had been done.

Mr Wauchope said: “The general feeling [of the NEC] was that the damage that had been caused could not really be repaired. Now we have to have an EGM which is a cause of great concern.”

Asked if he felt Mr Bolton should step aside before the EGM, he said: “I very much hope so as the general view is that it would be crazy for him to carry on.

"A lot of members are thinking that if he does [carry on] he’s going to cause as much damage as he can.

“It is difficult not to feel some sympathy for him but I’m afraid he has brought it on himself.”

Mr Bolton had warned party chiefs they risked the party being torn apart if they passed a vote of no confidence in him.

Speaking ahead of yesterday's meeting of the NEC, which was called to consider his relationship with the glamour model Jo Marney from Maidstone, he was adamant he would not be quitting.

He has been engulfed in a controversy after his relationship hit the headlines and it emerged he had left his third wife for the 25-year-old model.

The controversy centred on social media racist posts she had made about Prince Harry and fiancee Meghan Markle, who she said had tainted the Royal Family.

Although he said that he had ended the relationship, the pair have since been seen together.

But a former ally of Mr Bolton, Susie Govett, a Shepway councillor who acted as his press aide during his leadership campaign but resigned in protest from the party on Friday, said: "The NEC made exactly the right decision.

"If Bolton believes an EGM will break the party, as he has stated, then he should do the right thing and step down immediately to save the party from further damage and distraction."

Frank McKenna, a former Ukip county councillor and chairman of the Folkestone constituency party, said he had some sympathy with Mr Bolton.

"How do you separate the private life from the public one? Are we to be judge and jury over every politician? If we are, we might as well start on all the MPs."

Mr Bolton held a behind closed doors meeting with Kent members of Ukip tonight after issuing his statement declaring he would stay on to fight for the top job.

Party members were invited to the closed meeting at Folkestone's Grand Hotel to hear Mr Bolton's pitch and for a question and answer session.

Although the numbers were not great, many expressed support for the leader, saying Mr Bolton deserved to have a chance to put his case and that the NEC had engineered a vote of no confidence to replace him.