Nigel Farage: If Boris Johnson doesn’t shift, I’ll 'unleash 600 candidates to take votes from Tories and Labour'

Nigel Farage spent the day in South Wales. In Labour heartlands where he thinks Jeremy Corbyn has “betrayed” traditional Labour voters who backed Leave in 2016.

The audience at a rally in a village hall in Pontypool gave him a standing ovation as he laid into the Brexit deal that Boris Johnson has re-negotiated.

“If he wins a majority on this ticket, all we do is go on into three more years of agonising negotiations,” Mr Farage told the crowd of supporters.

In his tried and tested campaign speech that he delivers almost word for word at every event, Nigel Farage likes to compare the Prime Minister to a second-hand car salesman not allowing a customer to look under the “bonnet” of the Brexit deal.

The Brexit Party leader’s last rally of the week was held at a conference centre in Newport.

There he urged Boris Johnson to “toughen up” the Brexit deal the Prime Minister has re-negotiated.

• Nigel Farage keeps open offer of 'leave alliance'

His rhetoric has softened. A week ago he was calling on Mr Johnson to “drop the deal” - now he’s asking him to “toughen” it up.

He told me that Boris Johnson has until “Monday lunchtime” to make some concessions, to meet his red lines. A deadline on trade talks with No Deal staying on the table are the key demands.

If Boris Johnson doesn’t shift, he’ll unleash “600” candidates to take votes from the Tories and Labour. Nominations close in a few days and then we’ll see the exact number of Brexit Party candidates.

During a walkabout, along with local candidates and Brexit Party MEP Anne Widdecombe, on market day in Ebbw Vale, Nigel Farage met supporters and some disillusioned Labour voters.

Not everyone was pleased to see him though. 80-year-old John Rogers told him to his face he ”hadn’t got the courage” to stand for election himself.

“You’re the only Party leader not standing” he pointed out.

Asked by Mr Farage if he wanted Brexit, John Rogers said “no” and said he was in favour of a second referendum but insisted to Mr Farage that his "explanations don’t make sense”.

It was snapshot of the election debate in a South Wales street but the leave and remain arguments that run though this campaign were captured in that one moment.

• A local resident confronts Nigel Farage over his decision not to stand at the election