Brexit: Prepare for fresh referendum within months, Nigel Farage tells Leave supporters

Former Ukip leader’s warning comes as ex-minister reveals growing support in cabinet for Final Say vote

Nigel Farage has told Brexit campaigners they should prepare for another referendum amid parliamentary deadlock over Theresa May’s planned deal.

The former Ukip leader told Leave supporters to be “ready” for a fresh public vote as reports suggest some cabinet ministers are increasingly receptive to the idea of giving the public the Final Say on Brexit.

Speaking at a Leave Means Leave rally in London, he “implored” Brexiteers to prepare for another campaign, suggesting he expected a fresh referendum within months.

Mr Farage told the crowd he did not believe “the great Brexit betrayal is anywhere near finished” and said he was “more fearful than any point in this process”.

He said: “My message folks tonight is, as much as I don’t want a second referendum, it would be wrong of us on a Leave Means Leave platform not to get ready, not to be prepared for a worst-case scenario.”

He added: “We’ve now got to move into a different gear. We’ve got to start forming branches and active groups all over this country.

“We’ve got to re-engage with those millions of people who never voted in their lives before.

“And if all our efforts come to nothing because we leave at 11pm on March 29th, then so much the better.

“But can I urge you, can I implore you to get ready for every situation. I think they will, in the next few months, betray us completely – and let us be ready not just to fight back, but if it comes we will win it next time by a much bigger margin.”

His warning comes amid growing support for a Final Say vote, with parliament set to reject Ms May’s proposed deal.

Several ministers, including Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and Ms May’s deputy, David Lidington, are said to be increasingly receptive to the idea of another referendum, and want Ms May to hold a series of “indicative votes” in parliament to determine which Brexit outcome she is most likely to build a Commons majority for.

Jo Johnson, who resigned as a transport minister last month to back calls to give the public the Final Say, said there was growing support among cabinet ministers for a fresh referendum.

He told The Times: “We have had serious conversations. There is increasing interest around No 10 and the Cabinet Office about a second referendum, putting the prime minister’s deal to the public.

“She needs a bridge back to reality and I think a referendum can help that.”

Mr Johnson also warned Ms May that she would not get away with “running down the clock” in order to force MPs to support her Brexit deal as the only alternative to no deal.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I am concerned that No 10 is running down the clock. No 10 could try to leave that vote [on the Brexit deal] until the very last minute.

“Effectively, giving the country, giving parliament no choice at all, except between her deal, flawed as it is and facing fundamental opposition across all sides of the House, and no deal at all – and that’s an unacceptable choice for parliament.

“It’s simply unacceptable to run out the clock and face the country with the prospect of being timed out.”

Labour MP Kate Hoey spoke alongside Mr Farage at the Leave Means Leave rally and caused a stir by appearing to equate Brexit with the IRA as a threat to a united Ireland.

She said: “We didn’t spend 30 years in Northern Ireland stopping IRA terrorists killing soldiers, police and civilians in order to get a united Ireland, to allow a few jumped-up EU bureaucrats and a complicit prime minister to try and do the same thing by the back door.

“Even more ridiculous is that it would not even be in the economic interests of Northern Ireland who depend on so much of their trade to and from Britain. Why is a British prime minister dancing to the tune of an Irish Taoiseach? There’s no need for a hard border and there’s no need for a backstop.”