UKIP must reach 'compromise to survive', Paul Nuttall says

Infighting in UKIP's Welsh group must come to an end if the party is to survive, leadership candidate Paul Nuttall has warned.

Deputy leader and MEP Paul Nuttall said UKIP was on the "edge of oblivion".

Mr Nuttall said AM Neil Hamilton and MEP Nathan Gill had to reach a "compromise" for the good of the party.

He said he would sit down with both men in a bid to get Mr Gill to rejoin the Senedd group if he became UKIP's new leader.

Mr Gill left the party's group in the assembly to sit as an independent AM for North Wales in August, after being threatened with expulsion after refusing to give up his role an MEP.

A rift emerged between the two men when Mr Hamilton was chosen by a majority of UKIP's seven AMs to lead them in the Senedd following the election in May.

Former UKIP Wales leader MEP Nathan Gill (pictured right) left the assembly group after accusations of 'double jobbing'

UKIP is to hold a fresh leadership contest after the recently-elected Diane James unexpectedly quit after 18 days in the post.

Steven Woolfe, who had been one of the front-runners to replace Ms James, quit the party a few days after being involved in an altercation with fellow MEP Mike Hookem.

Mr Nuttall, who is one of the seven candidates for leadership, told BBC Radio Wales' Good Morning Wales programme that 28 November would be "day zero" for UKIP if he won.

He said the party's cause was bigger than "one or two personalities" and that UKIP had to "exist" and put all differences behind them.

"Wales is a microcosm of what's been going on throughout the party and what needs to happen is we need more jaw jaw and less war war," he said.