Will Nigel Farage try to become an MP for the eighth time?

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage is still considering whether to stand in the general election, he said on Thursday 20 April.

"I have got to weigh up where am I best to be in terms of having an impact on Brexit and perhaps warning the British public that it's not going in the direction it should be," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Am I better off staying in Strasbourg or better of trying to go to Westminster?"

Farage has so far made seven unsuccessful bids to become an MP between 1994 and 2015.

The Brexit backer, who has been an MEP since 1999, most recently lost out to Conservative Craig Mackinlay in South Thanet.

The Kent constituency is one of the seats being investigated by police over accusations that the Conservatives broke the law by overspending during the 2015 general election campaign.

The Tories were fined a record £70,000 by the Electoral Commission after the watchdog found "significant failures" in the party's spending reports.

The move came after an investigation by Channel 4 News into whether the party's so called "battle bus" was part of the Conservatives' local or national returns.

"Political parties of all colours have made reporting mistakes from time to time," a Tory spokesperson said.

"The Labour Party and Liberal Democrats both failed to declare sums of money which constituted a larger proportion of their national expenditure in the 2015 general election. Both have been fined by the Electoral Commission, and the Liberal Democrats are also under police investigation.

"This is the first time the Conservative Party has been fined for a reporting error. We regret that and will continue to keep our internal processes under review to ensure this does not happen again.

"Given the range of technical errors made by a number of political parties and campaign groups, there also needs to be a review of how the Electoral Commission's processes and requirements could be clarified or improved."

Elsewhere, Farage said his successor as Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, had just six weeks to "prove himself". Nuttall promised to take on Labour in its heartlands, but came second behind Gareth Snell in the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election in February.

The most recent opinion poll from YouGov, of more than 1,700 voters between 18 and 19 April, put Ukip on just 7% (-3).