Farage fronts third Brexit campaign

THE campaign to take Britain out of the EU was branded a ‘shambles’ last night after Nigel Farage launched a third group in an already crowded field.

The Ukip leader said his party had the members and infrastructure to get a grassroots anti-EU campaign off the ground.

But he ducked questions about why he set up the Say No to Europe group and decided not to throw his lot in with the two existing ‘Brexit’ campaigns.

Mr Farage said he wanted to put immigration at the centre of the EU debate – and warned rival groups were wrong to downplay its importance. He said Europe’s asylum policy had ‘opened the door to an exodus of biblical proportions’.

However, Ukip insiders say Mr Farage believes the rival groups lack his political experience and public profile.

The Business for Britain group had been expected to form the basis of the ‘out’ campaign in the referendum, but Ukip donor Arron Banks set up his own last month, Know.eu, arguing that Business for Britain was ‘trapped in the Westminster bubble’.

Mr Banks has said he does not want Mr Farage to be the figurehead for the campaign, insisting he is too divisive.

The groups will battle it out to be designated the official campaign by the Electoral Commission – bringing extra funding.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth yesterday said the anti-EU campaign was already descending into chaos.

He added: ‘What a shambles this No campaign sounds. How long have they been waiting for this and they can’t get their act together.’

Mr Farage yesterday denied a split, saying he was willing to work with anybody to get Britain out of the EU. He said there would be a ‘coming together’ of Eurosceptics as the campaign gathered pace.

He insisted Ukip activists were ‘raring to go’ to counter the efforts of pro-Europeans such as Tony Blair, Lord Mandelson and Sir Richard Branson, who have been making the case for continued EU membership.

Mr Farage will launch a national campaign tour on Friday. Asked who would lead the out campaign, he said: ‘I haven’t got a clue at this stage. This referendum may be some way off, it may well be somebody we haven’t even considered, somebody from the world of entertainment or business who has never been in politics at all.’