Nigel Farage has abandoned plans for the Brexit Party to contest more than 600 candidates in the General Election.

Speaking to supporters in Hartlepool he said the party would not stand in the 317 seats won by the Conservatives in the last election in 2017.

He said he had taken the decision because he feared that if they had run it would have led to a hung Parliament with significant gains for the Liberal Democrats.

The move is a significant boost for Boris Johnson amid warnings by Conservative ministers that they risked splitting the Brexit vote.

“We’ve decided ourselves that we absolutely have to put country before party and take the fight to Labour,” Mr Farage said.