The two groups battling to lead the Brexit campaign in the forthcoming EU referendum have failed to settle their differences - despite leading figures appearing together on a public platform.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage - who supports the Leave.EU group - said that both the organisations involved had been "badly damaged" as a result of the continued infighting in the Brexit camp.
But Conservative MP Steve Baker - who is a leading light in the rival Vote Leave group - flatly ruled out any merger between them and said they would continue to compete for the official Electoral Commission designation as the lead Brexit campaign.
The two men were appearing at Westminster at a cross-party gathering of pro-Brexit campaigners including Conservative MPs Liam Fox, David Davis and John Redwood, Labour backbencher Graham Stringer and Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionists.
Mr Farage complained that on five occasions "significant offers" had been made between the two groups and on each occasion they had been rebuffed.
"What an absolute crying shame and tragedy it is that one of the groups seeking nomination for the designation from El Comm in this referendum absolutely point blank refuses to work with anybody else. What a shame that is," he said.
"Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, unfortunately I think both of those organisations have been very badly damaged."
He predicted the official designation would now go to the newly formed Grassroots Out - formed by MPs including Tom Pursglove, Peter Bone and Kate Hoey - which Ukip and Leave.EU are now backing.
However Mr Baker made clear that Vote Leave would continue to seek the official designation and urged the MPs behind Grassroots Out to "return to the fold".
"The three key figures behind Grassroots Out were brought together within Vote Leave by me. I knew they would be great together, they are great together and I would urge them to come back into the Vote Leave fold," he said.
"The situation is that there is going to be competing applications for designation. What we need to do is be friends, we need to collaborate and we need to work together."
But asked directly by Mr Farage about a merger, he replied: "I don't think it is possible and I don't think it is necessary. I think we can collaborate as friends and fight together."
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