Nigel Farage threatens to return as Ukip leader unless Brexit is put 'back on track'

'I never thought I would say that again, but the government’s sell-out leaves me with no choice'

(Getty)

Nigel Farage has threatened to return as leader of Ukip for a third time unless Brexit is put “back on track”, following an explosive day of resignations from Theresa May’s cabinet.

The MEP for South East England warned he would campaign “in all parts” of the UK if Article 50 is suspended or delayed, a move he described as his “own red line”.

“In March 2019, the current leader of Ukip, Gerard Batten, will reach the end of his term in office,” he wrote in an article for The Telegraph. ”Unless Brexit is back on track by then, I will have to seriously consider putting my name forward to return as Ukip leader.

“I never thought I would say that again, but the government’s sell-out leaves me with no choice. The latest Brexit betrayal must be reversed.”

He added: ”I never wanted a career in politics. I only ever wanted to stop the country I love being sucked further into a political and economic union which is most unnatural to the instincts of the majority of my fellow citizens.”

The 54-year-old accused Theresa May of betraying the electorate following her ”Chequers sell-out”, the government’s Brexit strategy, agreed last week, which ultimately triggered the resignations of Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, and David Davies, Brexit secretary.

Earlier, Mr Farage, a close ally of Donald Trump and the first elected British politician to meet the former host of The Apprentice after he won the 2016 election, had congratulated Mr Davis and Mr Johnson’s after they resigned.

“Well done,” said Mr Farage, a former stock broker. “May’s response shows that she is controlled by the civil service. For Brexit to succeed we must get rid of this awful, duplicitous PM.”

Before Mr Johnson announced he was leaving, Mr Farage wrote: “Boris Johnson now has the chance to save Brexit, he will be a hero if he walks away from the betrayal of voters’ trust.”

He also appeared to persuade another minister and leading Brexiteer, Michael Gove, to quit. “Time for @michaelgove to decide. Party or country, career or principle,” he said.

In his newspaper article, Mr Farage said: “Mrs May and her cabinet have wilfully broken the direct promises they made to the electorate and their behaviour could even sink the Conservative Party.

“Mrs May has therefore put herself in a politically perilous situation. Will Jacob Rees-Mogg and the European Research Group have the guts to bring down this Prime Minister? I hope so. For it is obvious that as long as she remains at the helm there will be no clean, democratic Brexit.”