POLITICAL maverick Nigel Farage is sensationally plotting an explosive Brexit-style referendum in the United States which could split California in TWO.

The campaign, dubbed ‘Calexit’, aims to crack America’s most populous state into two separate east and west states.

Nigel Farage and Leave.EU backer Aaron Banks have raised around £800,000 for their Calexit campaign Credit: PA:Press Association Archive

Farage and wealthy Leave.EU backer Aaron Banks, the self-styled ‘bad boys of Brexit’, have been recruited by Republicans to lead the push for a referendum during the US midterm elections in 2018, reports The Sunday Times.

Their goal is to pit the rural east of California, which is more likely to vote Republican, against the ‘liberal coastal elites’ of the west coast including L.A and San Francisco.

With nearly 40 million people, California has 55 electoral college vote – more than any other US state – which have went to the Democratic presidential candidate at every election since 1988.

Farage and Banks have recently returned from the US after helping raise £800,000 for the Calexit campaign.

The pair were recruited by political strategist Gerry Gunster and Republican Scott Baugh.

They are hoping to capitalise on the shock election win of Donald Trump which has helped widen the political divide in the country.

Indeed, their referendum bid is not the only one in town.

A lefty-leaning Calexit is already in full swing and hopes to break California – which is the sixth largest economy in the world – away from the rest of the US.

Farage, pictured with President Donald Trump, is revered on the political right of America following the UK's historic Brexit vote Credit: AP:Associated Press

Banks, who helped spearhead the ‘Leave.EU’ campaign with former Ukip leader Farage, spoke about the group’s audacious plan.

He said: “It would be portrayed as the Hollywood elites versus the people, breaking up the bad government.

“Seventy-eight per cent of people in California are unhappy with their government.

“It's the world's sixth largest economy and it's very badly run.”

The geographically larger eastern region of California is reportedly more likely to vote Republican

Banks, Farage and their spokesman Andy Wigmore reportedly attended several events in Orange County two weeks ago where they helped raise cash for their campaign.

Wigmore revealed that many wealthy tech and agriculture capitalists in the liberal state feel “left out since Reagan” left the White House in the 1980s.

He said: “This has been done before with West Virginia and Virginia and North and South Dakota, so it can work.”

The former Ukip leader was the first UK politician to meet with Trump following his shock election win in November Credit: PA:Press Association

Banks called the proposed vote the “greatest political showdown ever.”

He said: “We were saying that people said the same about Brexit — and we just went and did it.

“The money was pledged to take it to the next level.

“This could be the greatest political showdown ever.”

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