Nick Griffin has announced he will step down as leader of the BNP after the far-right party lost all its London seats.

Mr Griffin said he would end his leadership in 2013 to “make way for a younger person who does not have any baggage which can be used against the party”.

He said he wanted to concentrate on getting re-elected to the European Parliament in the 2014 elections.

“I then intend to help the other European nationalist parties to achieve the level of sophistication which the BNP has been able to build up, because a victory for any one of these parties is a victory to all of us,” he added.

An announcement on the BNP website said that it received a “bloody nose” in the local elections earlier this month, when it lost all 12 of its seats in Dagenham, where Mr Griffin also lost to Margaret Hodge in the battle for MP.