Election 2015: Farage reveals hospital treatment

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has admitted to being "in a great deal of pain" at the start of the election campaign.

Mr Farage said he had neglected a chronic back condition resulting from a plane crash in 2010 but that he was "back on form" thanks to treatment.

After addressing rumours about his health in a Daily Telegraph interview, Mr Farage told the BBC he was receiving private treatment.

Campaigning left him no time to manage NHS appointments, he added.

The UKIP leader was injured on the day of the 2010 general election when the aircraft he was travelling in came down shortly after taking off from an airfield in Northamptonshire.

Analysis by Alex Forsyth, BBC political correspondent

At UKIP's spring conference in February Nigel Farage took to the stage to try and quash "vicious rumours" that he was unwell.

Instead, his comments heightened speculation over his health, which was further fuelled by his performance at the start of the election campaign.

Now Mr Farage has said unflattering snaps of him looking unwell had prompted him to get the treatment he needed for his chronic back pain.

In recent days there's been a clear improvement in the UKIP leader's energy and performance on the campaign trail.

Clearly he hopes opening up about his health problems, and insisting he's "back on form", will put an end to any future speculation over whether he's up to the job.

He said people had noticed a difference in his demeanour since the start of this election campaign, that the speculation was "his fault" and that he had been "stupid".

"I've not been doing physio. I've not been doing my exercises," he said.

"I've been so obsessed with the UKIP campaign that I put myself into a position where I wasn't really firing on all cylinders."

He added: "I'm not unwell at all but I did have neuralgic pain. I've sorted it out. I've reorganised my life."

Mr Farage said he was having osteopathy treatment and taking tablets to help the inflammation.