Nigel Farage is back on the campaign trail as he launched a bid to block a “Brexit betrayal” and “chuck” the Prime Ministers’ Chequers deal.

The former Ukip leader’s Brexit battle bus rolled into Westhoughton, Bolton, ahead of a major rally in the town later in the day, where he will be speaking alongside former Brexit secretary David Davis and Labour Brexiteer MP Kate Hoey.

Mr Farage said: “We have not changed our minds, we want Brexit,” he told a smattering of members of the public, as the bus arrived.

The MEP said the Prime Minister Theresa May’s strong message to the EU yesterday following the bitter Salzburg debacle was enough to save her job during the Conservative Party conference next week but that the Chequers deal was “dead”.

He claimed the “political class” was planning a “major betrayal” and urged voters to write to their MPs to ensure Brexit is delivered.

He said: “This is not about party politics. This is above party politics, it is above personal ambition.

“It is very simple, we want our political class to deliver what was the greatest democratic exercise in the history of this country.

“We want to be an independent nation.”

Brandishing a “Leave Means Leave” poster he added: “And what this campaign intends to do, you can see very clearly here, here are the names of all the MPs and all their contacts and we want people living in this area to go to their MPs and say unless you deliver the Brexit we voted for we will never vote for you again.

“Every single day there’s a negative story about Brexit and what a catastrophe it is.

“This is us coming back with a counter campaign.

“I think if there was a second referendum Leave would win by a lot bigger margin.

“I think we would collectively stick two fingers up to an establishment that did not listen to the democratic vote – but we are a long way from that.

“This really is the people versus the politicians. It was during the referendum and it still is today.

“This is the establishment, not just the British, the global establishment.

“They do not accept Brexit, they want to overturn it, they want to do it by threatening people and bullying people and we are going to start giving them the argument back in the other direction.”

Mr Farage handed out posters at Westhoughton indoor market posing for selfies before enjoying a pint of “Flat Cap” beer in a Wetherspoons pub over the road, where he shook hands with local well-wishers.

Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage is vice-chairman of Leave Means Leave (Martin Rickett/PA)

The UK Government’s plan for Brexit was agreed by the Cabinet at the Prime Minister’s country residence, Chequers, on July 6.

It includes an end to the free movement of people, a free trade area for goods under a “common rulebook” and a “facilitated customs arrangement” which aims to maintain easy trade in goods between the UK and the EU whilst allowing Britain to develop an independent trade policy with the rest of the world.

But Mrs May’s plans were dismissed as damaging to the single market and unworkable by EU leaders at a summit in Salzburg on Thursday.

The Prime Minister has said the Chequers plan is the only one on the table that will work and has demanded “respect” for the UK from the EU.

The rally later on Saturday at the University of Bolton Stadium, is the first in a number of events across the country organised by Leave Means Leave, the pressure group campaigning for a “clean, swift exit” from the EU.

There will be a major rally in Birmingham on Sunday, September 30, ahead of the Conservative Party Conference in the city, with more events planned in Torquay, Bournemouth, Gateshead and Harrogate during October.