General election: UKIP hopes to 'dent' Tory support

Neil Hamilton said it was "nonsense" to think Theresa May would control immigration

Voters should back UKIP to make sure Theresa May delivers on Brexit, its leader in the Welsh Assembly has said.

Neil Hamilton told BBC Radio Wales the prime minister had been a "tepid" Remainer and did not have the "steel" to ensure UK control of its borders.

He insisted the UK could survive outside the European Union and could still trade with its member states.

Mr Hamilton also backed Paul Nuttall as an effective UKIP leader and insisted he did not want the job himself.

In a first of a series of phone-ins on the Jason Mohammad show with leading Welsh political figures, Mr Hamilton described UKIP as an "insurance policy" against the Conservatives "wasting the opportunities" of Brexit.

He claimed Mrs May had made "no attempt" to reduce immigration from outside the EU during her time as home secretary and prime minister.

"The idea that she's going to deliver on what was the most important element of the referendum campaign I think is nonsense," Mr Hamilton said.

'Vanity project'

"And we wouldn't have had a referendum in the first place had it not been for UKIP breathing down the Tory party's neck during the last parliament."

Mr Hamilton added that UKIP wanted to see the overseas aid budget cut by half - about £8bn a year - in favour of spending on UK causes such as the health service.

He also pledged scrapping subsidies for renewable energy to cut customer bills, and opposed the HS2 high-speed rail project as an "absurd vanity project" with the cash better spent on the rest of the rail network.