Politics

John Whittingdale was the group’s honorary vice-president when it first launched and attended the opening with his then office aide Carrie Symonds, now Carrie Johnson, wife of prime minister Johnson.

The former Commons Speaker refused to make any ‘faux apologies’ despite a damning report by Parliament’s Independent Expert Panel.

"Under any normal administration that in itself would be a resignation matter," the veteran MP told the House.

Quoting Churchill, he said: "We will not give up, and we will not lose, we will fight until the end, in the sea and in the air, we will continue fighting for our land whatever the cost."

It comes as the US secretary of state Antony Blinken reinforced the message Moscow’s campaign was faltering and said Ukraine “can absolutely win against Russia".

Meanwhile, Poland has received an extraordinary number of Ukrainian refugees: over one million, prompting The Spectator to call it a “humanitarian superpower”.

Farage was set to appear alongside Richard Tice and Dominique Samuels to campaign for a referendum on net zero.

Last week Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov likened the Americans to Hitler and Napoleon.

“We’ve been very clear that it’s unlawful as well as unhelpful for UK military and for the UK population to start going towards Ukraine in that sense," the army boss said.