Lance Forman has reacted furiously to Nigel Farage's claims that he was plotting against him ahead of his decision to quit the Brexit Party.

The Jewish businessman - amongst four senior Brexit Party who urged Eurosceptics to vote Tory on Thursday - told the JC: “What else can he say? Sadly Nigel’s strategy no longer stacks up.”

Mr Forman and the three other MEPs called on Mr Farage to pull out the campaign on Thursday as they announced they were ditching his party.

But he hit back suggesting they had been plotting the move ever since Boris Johnson replaced Theresa May as Conservative leader. 

But Mr Forman - the owner of the H Forman and Son salmon smokehouse - said on Friday: ”I have never plotted against him.

“Indeed I have supported him publicly at every stage. This is not about personalities. I, like many of Nigel’s supporters, now simply take a different view.

“The big question that everyone should ask themselves is - If he really thought Boris’ deal was so bad, why stand down 317 candidates?"

He added that Mr Farage’s strategy “risks losing Brexit and worse even than that - it risks Corbyn in number 10 with a Remain alliance."

The four Brexit Party quitters - who included John Longworth, former director-general of the British Chamber of Commerce and classical singer Lucy Harris and Annunziata Rees-Mogg - denied they had been urged to resign by the Tories.

Sources close to Mr Farage called for the four to quit as MEPs.