The former Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless has left Ukip to rejoin the Conservative Party.

Mr Reckless is currently a member of the Welsh Assembly but has now left the party.

Earlier, he was reported to be considering sitting as an independent, but he has since confirmed he has defected back to the Tories.

However, the Conservative Party says that while he will be treated as a member of the group in the Welsh Assembly, he is not formally re-joining the party.

He left the Conservatives in 2014 and triggered a by-election battle in Rochester and Strood, which he won.

But he lost the seat at the general election just months later when Conservative Kelly Tolhurst secured victory with a majority of more than 7,000.

Mr Reckless then stood for the party at the Welsh Assembly election.

Ukip chairman Paul Oakden has since called for Mr Reckless to stand down.

He said: "It is now incumbent on Mark Reckless to relinquish a position he has only by virtue of a Ukip mandate. The position should go to the next Ukip candidate on the regional list."

His departure comes as a further blow to Ukip, after the decision by the party’s only MP Douglas Carswell to leave and sit as an independent.