Dominic Cummings, the campaign director of Vote Leave, and Matthew Elliott, its chief executive, successful fought off a bid by Bernard Jenkin MP at a meeting of the group’s board on Tuesday.
The attempted coup came amid pressure from Arron Banks, the millionaire who is bankrolling the Leave.EU campaign, for the two to merge.
One source said Tory MPs associated with Vote Leave were nervous about attacks on the Prime Minister David Cameron from Mr Cummings.
Vote Leave is not keen to merge with Leave.EU because of the involvement of Nigel Farage, the UK Independence Party leader.
Mr Jenkin is a senior Tory MP who made his name battling Prime Minister John Major over implementation of the Maastricht Treaty in British law.in the 1990s.
Neither Mr Jenkin nor Mr Cumming returned calls from The Telegraph.
A Vote Leave spokesman said: "The Board has complete confidence in Matthew and Dominic and there will be no merger with Leave.EU.'
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