The founder of Ukip has established a new left-of-centre anti–EU party which he hopes will challenge Labour.
Alan Sked, 66, a professor of international history at the London School of Economics who founded Ukip in 1993 but quit five years later claiming the organisation had become racist, registered the New Deal party on Tuesday.
With a party address in Islington, north London, forms lodged with the Electoral Commission describe the organisation as "the party of the centre left".
Sked said New Deal's policy pledges included renationalising the railways and scrapping the coalition's bedroom tax, or spare room subsidy.
Speaking to the Sunday Times he said he was preparing to symbolically stand against Labour leader Ed Miliband in the 2015 general election.
Writing in the Guardian in May Sked said there was a real need for an anti-EU challenge to the Labour party: "There was a time when Labour was adamantly anti-EU. Gaitskell, Foot, Kinnock and even Blair opposed it. But then Jacques Delors told the TUC that whereas they were impotent to defeat Thatcherism, he could and would overthrow it from Brussels. Almost overnight, Labour's patriotism disappeared and the party stood on its head."
He said that under Farage he thought Ukip was "anti-immigrant, anti intellectual and racist" but believes "the majority of the people in this country want out of the EU" and wanted a liberal socially minded party to represent their views.
"They would like a party devoted to this cause, but couldn't vote for one that was extremely rightwing. They will now be given a serious alternative to the major parties and to Ukip," Sked said.
Without any financial backers Sked said that he will fund New Deal using the same model as Barack Obama's electoral campaign – through a multitude of online donations.
"We are ready to raise our own funds and confident we will get them," he said.
In response to racism allegations a Ukip spokesperson told the Sunday Times: "These are the tired and false repetitions of a disappointed man.
"Alan should be pleased with how well we are doing and the success of the party he created."
