THE TORIES SUFFICE:

The author of Ukip's general election manifesto has said the party should concentrate on "compassionate, centre-ground" policies, denying the party was riven with bitter infighting.

Suzanne Evans, the party's deputy chairwoman, said the party's post-election troubles were related to advisers who had now left. "I don't think anyone hates anyone," she said on Sunday.

Evans also backed calls for Nigel Farage, the party leader, to take a break in the aftermath of the punishing election campaign - but insisted it should be a short holiday rather than anything longer.

Turmoil erupted in Ukip after Patrick O'Flynn, the party's campaign director, gave an interview saying Farage had been led astray by an inner circle of advisers, which had made him become "snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive".

After a power struggle, two of Farage's key allies, Raheem Kassam, his chief of staff, and Matthew Richardson, the party secretary, announced their departure. Kassam is to join the rightwing news website, Breitbart.

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