Nigel Farage has denied reports he is preparing to move to the US following Donald Trump's victory in the country's presidential election.
A spokesperson for the UKIP leader said it was "total nonsense" that he was preparing to become an immigrant in America, despite a report in The Times suggesting Farage had told friends he wanted to start a new life abroad.
The newspaper had quoted "confidants" who suggested Farage "would feel 'freer' from public attention living abroad" because his family had been targeted. He currently lives in Kent with his wife, Kirsten, and their two teenage daughters but has kept them out of the public eye since 2015, when a family meal to their local pub was disrupted by anti-UKIP protesters.
Farage is due to stand down from his third stint as UKIP leader at the end of the month but is currently expected to remain as an MEP – and collect his European salary of £84,000 – until Britain leaves the EU in 2019.
His following in the US has grown dramatically in recent months, with President-elect Trump granting him an hour-long meeting and suggesting the UKIP politician as a potential British ambassador to Washington DC.
The UKIP leader has benefited from his early, substantial backing of Trump, which saw him making regular appearances on US cable news networks such as Fox News.
On Wednesday night Farage attended a party hosted in his honour at the Ritz hotel in central London, carrying a plate of Ferrero Rocher before an audience of newspaper owners and leading Eurosceptic politicians.