UKIP’S Bolton chairman says the party’s national leadership will have to ‘sort itself out’ after members voted to oust Henry Bolton.

Mr Bolton, who was only elected in September 2017, was sacked as leader at an extraordinary meeting in Birmingham on Saturday.

Cllr Paul Richardson, who was UKIP’s first elected councillor in Bolton, was among 19 local party members who attended the vote and he was disappointed by the outcome.

The Little Lever and Darcy Lever councillor, who is up for re-election in May, said: “We thought that if Henry could continue then a line would be drawn under this business and, for better or worse, we would have stability. Half of the room was on one side of the issue and half was the other. I have never been at a meeting where that has been the case. It didn’t feel like it has before. On Saturday, I wasn’t happy about that.”

He added: “Our purpose is still the same and that is to build a base in local government as a springboard to Westminster. That is where we are focused.

“The top of the party will have to gets its ducks in a row and sort itself out.”