Gerard Batten joins Marine Le Pen's Group in the EU Parliament

It has been announced that Gerard Batten, the leader of UKIP, has joined the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group in the European parliament and been appointed as its Brexit spokesperson.

The ENF group, which is led by Marine Le Pen, counts strong patriotic parties amongst its members including Matteo Salvini’s Lega Party. Other notables include Geert Wilders and his PVV Party, Belgium's Vlaams Belang and the Austrian Freedom Party, which is currently a partner in the Austrian government with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives.

The ENF group has members from nine different countries. The largest party of the group by number of MEPs is Marine Le Pen's National Rally, formerly Front National, representing almost half of ENF's MEPs with 17 MEPs out of 40.

Batten was formerly a member of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group (EFDD) but left in December after Nigel Farage, the president of the group, kept attacking him over his association with Tommy Robinson.

Two more UKIP MEPs, Stuart Agnew and Jane Collins, have also decided to leave the EFDD group and join the ENF. Former UKIP MEP Janice Atkinson, who Gerard Batten often shares a platform with, is a Vice-president of the group.

Gerard Batten was interviewed by RT on 16 January about the progress of Brexit.

Batten: "Parliament is putting itself in opposition to the people"