Farage predicts low turnout election and considers spoiling ballot paper

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has said he believes the election has not "taken off" and revealed that he is considering spoiling his ballot paper.

Mr Farage was meeting voters at a working men's club in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, before walking around a market in the Labour-held town.

He received a warm welcome from supporters – who had paid £2.50 each to be part of the audience that heard the party leader attack the BBC and the prospect of an EU army.

Later, Mr Farage said he thought there would be a low turnout in the election.

He said: "My impression of it is that this election has not taken off at all."

And speaking about his own constituency of Orpington, where the Brexit Party does not have a candidate, he said he might spoil his ballot paper.

At the rally at Highstone Road Working Men's Club, he urged Conservative voters in the town to vote for the Brexit Party to "keep Boris to his promises" and "have a clean break from all the institutions of the European Union.

He said: "We've got to persuade Conservative voters in areas like this, areas that the Tories have never won and areas that the Tories will never win, that if they want to get somebody into Parliament unafraid to stand up, to keep Boris to his promises, that is going to be our job.

"I've little doubt that he will win this election, I've little doubt he will give us a form of Brexit but I don't want Brexit in name only, I don't want us to be stuck inside European law, I want us to get what we voted for, I want us to have a clean break from all the institutions of the European Union."

In a question and answer session, Mr Farage spoke about his proposal to phase out the television licence fee – and revealed that he is currently watching the television series The Crown.

He said: "I just think the BBC now is an outdated anachronism, whose political behaviour since the referendum has been biased at every single level.

"This is the 21st century, the BBC belongs way back in the middle of the 20th century."

He also answered a question about an EU Army, saying that he would try to "pin down" Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn about the issue at the Nato summit next week.

He said: "I have been told, by officials in Brussels, that through the withdrawal agreement, the one thing we will not be leaving is the European Defence Union.

"I promise you we will do our damnedest to expose this and to say we want no part of it."