In 2008 Nigel Farage acknowledged that the BNP had proposed a deal for the European elections the following year, but insisted it had been unanimously rejected. Farage told reporters then: "I'm simply amazed that the BNP thought we would even consider such a thing."

Now the new book, Revolt on the Right, by Dr Matthew Goodwin and Dr Robert Ford – called the most definitive account yet of the Ukip movement – reveals that the BNP's proposal was canvassed among 17 members of the party's NEC. Two members supported the proposal, it has emerged.

Farage, who said he had been against a pact, told the authors: "There were a lot of people saying to me at that time, 'You've got to do a deal with them.' I even had Tory MEPs saying to me, 'Nigel, you've got to do a deal with these people.' We were being beaten by them regularly in local elections. So there was huge pressure on me. The nature of the deal was the BNP would stand in some regions in the European elections in the north, and Ukip would stand in the south, and that would be the electoral pact: we wouldn't oppose each other."