ONE of Barrow's leading voices for UKIP has bemoaned the sorry situation that the party finds itself in after Steven Woolfe decided to quit as a member of the party.

Colin Rudd, who is the UKIP chairman for Barrow, endorsed Mr Woolfe as the ideal leader to take over following Diane James' unexpected resignation earlier this month.

However, the MEP for North West England resigned from the party after being rushed to hospital following an altercation with fellow MEP Mike Hookem in Strasbourg.

Mr Rudd, who is now backing UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall to take the hotseat, said: "It's a real blow and until we get all the candidates and we know who is standing I'm not really sure what is going on. We don't really know where we go from here and until we get a leader we are pretty rudderless.

"There are different ideologies that are struggling to reach a compromise since Nigel quit and that has bubbled to the surface but as soon as we get a new leader that will be sorted out quite quickly. We need a good leader to stamp their authority about where we are going as a party."

READ MORE: Barrow UKIP chairman backs party to recover following Diane James's resignation