UKIP leader Henry Bolton has refused to quit, despite losing the confidence of his party’s National Executive Council.

In a defiant statement yesterday, Bolton said the attacks on his racist girlfriend were not because of her racism, but because of “factional infighting”.

He promised to stay on and “drain the swamp” of people who were against him.

Ukip’s constitutional rule means that after a vote of no confidence the party leader has four weeks to organise an extraordinary general meeting and ask the rank and file to vote on the future of his or her position.

At the time of going to print, 13 senior Ukip politicians, including Bolton’s deputy and assistant deputy, had quit.

In a press conference – held outside the hotel in Folkestone that has his been home ever since his wife kicked him out over his relationship with a model 30 years his junior, Bolton said: “I respect the next steps in the constitutional process and will therefore not be resigning as party leader. I repeat: I shall not be resigning as party leader.”

He added that Brexit was “the most pressing matter facing our country and I am determined not to allow the NEC to distract the party away from participating forcefully in the independence debate.”

Attacking his critics in the party, Bolton said: “Without reflecting at all on its individual members, the NEC, as presently constituted, is unfit for purpose and has severely handicapped the party’s progress and political delivery for some years, as all recent Ukip leaders will attest.

“It has not only lost the confidence of me as the party leader in its ability to act objectively as the party’s governing body, it has also lost the confidence of a large proportion of the membership.”

Bolton says he has ended the “romantic element” of his relationship with Jo Marney.

Messages from the 25-year old model, actress and writer, leaked to the press, showed her saying Prince Harry’s fiancee Meghan Markle would “taint” the royal family, using the word negro and expressing white nationalist sentiments.

Bolton’s former deputy, Margot Parker, said Bolton’s “personal life took over the job he was elected to do”.

She added: “It would be quicker and cleaner if he came to the conclusion he could go sooner rather than later.

“This is taking time away from doing the job. This puts the party in a limbo situation.”

Even disgraced former Tory MP Neil Hamilton, a man synonymous with sleaze who is now Ukip party’s leader in Wales, thought Bolton was beyond the pale.

“He should now resign from Ukip immediately ... if he forces us to hold an EGM, he will only humiliate himself further.”

Even by the standards of Ukip leaders, Bolton’s tenure is set to be brief and inglorious. He has been in the job since the end of September.

His predecessor Paul Nuttall, who was accused of lying about being at the Hillsborough disaster and embellishing his CV, took charge between November 2016 and June 2017. Before him was Diane James, who lasted all of three weeks.

Nigel Farage was before her. And yesterday there were rumours he and former Ukip donor Arron Banks could be about to set up a new pro-Brexit organisation, a move that would probably lead to the end of the party.