Andrew Brons, the MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, has resigned from the British National Party (BNP).
Mr Brons, who led the National Front in the 1980s, resigned after a dispute with current BNP chairman and MEP, Nick Griffin.
Mr Brons, 68, said: “The current chairman of the rump BNP has described me in a text to his attack dogs as ‘vermin’.
"More recently, he described me as a ‘state agent’ – a description he attached to me 26 years ago but which obviously did not apply when he appointed me as the lead candidate in Yorkshire for the European elections.