NIGEL FARAGE’S ramshackle stewardship of the right-wing UK Independence Party was in doubt yet again last night as senior party figures turned on each other in spectacular fashion.

With the party still reeling from its shambolic election performance and the resignation — and subsequent reappointment — of Mr Farage as leader, simmering tensions have erupted into open verbal warfare.

Mr Farage was widely derided for quitting as leader after failing to win the South Thanet seat in the general election, only to be reinstated three days later after the party’s national executive committee rejected his resignation.

Two of his team members, chief of staff Raheem Kassam and party secretary Matthew Richardson, now appear to have left the party.

And in a Times interview yesterday, Ukip economics spokesman Patrick O’Flynn accused Mr Farage of becoming a “snarling, thin-skinned, aggressive” man who is turning Ukip into a “personality cult.”

Mr O’Flynn said the Ukip leader’s behaviour risked the party being seen as an “absolute monarchy” and blamed Mr Farage’s “aggressive” and “inexperienced” advisers.

He called for Mr Farage to adopt a “much more consultative and consensual leadership style.”

Mr O’Flynn said: “What’s happened since Thursday night, Friday morning has certainly laid us open to the charge that this looks like an absolutist monarchy or a personality cult.”

Bizarrely, Mr O’Flynn then claimed that he backed Mr Farage, despite his comments.

Others were not so coy.

A major donor to the party, spread-betting millionaire Stuart Wheeler, who donated almost £100,000 to Ukip’s election campaign, told the BBC that Mr Farage should go.

He said: “I would like him to step down, at least for the moment. And if he wants to put himself up in an election, then he has every right to do so, though I personally would prefer somebody else now.”