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Millionaire Brexit backer Aaron Banks says second referendum is only option now.

Aaron Banks, who bankrolled campaign to Leave, said there should be a second vote to confirm support for a clean break with the EU.

Arron Banks, the co-founder of influential pro-Brexit campaign group Leave.EU, said: "If we do not act radically now, we will sleepwalk into a faux Brexit, in name only.

"True Brexiteers have been backed into a corner and the only option now is to go back to the polls and let the people shout from the rooftops their support of a true Brexit," Banks said in a statement.

"Leave would win by a landslide."

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Nigel Farage provoked surprise when he said he has changed his mind on holding a second Brexit referendum today.

Speaking on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff this morning, the former UKIP leader said he wanted to put any doubt over the issue to bed and 'kill the issue for a generation'.

"Just maybe I’m reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on EU membership

(Image: AFP)

"I think if we had a second referendum on EU membership we’d kill it off for a generation.

"The percentage that would vote to leave next time would be very much bigger than it was last time round."

Farage's call was welcomed by anti-Brexit campaigners, including Lord Malloch Brown, who chairs Best for Britain, who said: "A second referendum: my message is clear-bring it on."

While Lord Adonis tweeted: "So Nigel Farage wants a referendum on Mrs May’s Brexit deal. I agree. Bring it on!"

While the Lib Dems' Tom Brake said he agreed with both Nigel Farage and Tony Blair who have now both called for an additional referendum.

(Image: WPA Pool)

Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said: “Support is now growing on both sides of the argument for a vote on the final deal with the choice of an exit from Brexit.

“In any future referendum, Liberal Democrats will be leading the charge against Nigel Farage to keep Britain in the EU.

“But Farage shouldn’t be so confident of winning, people are now far more aware of the costs of Brexit and the fabrications of the Leave campaign.

“Instead of the promised £350m for the NHS, living standards are in freefall and the health service is in crisis.

“What will the Leave campaign bus have written on it next time: let’s not fund our NHS, but pay a £39bn Brexit divorce bill instead?”

Prominent Labour Remain MP Chuka Umunna said Farage had a "valid point" but did not say he supported the idea of a second referendum.

The MP, who is a member of Open Britain, said: “For perhaps the first time in his life, Nigel Farage is making a valid point. In a democracy like ours, the British people have every right to keep an open mind about Brexit.

“If the Brexit that is delivered does not match up to the promises of Leave campaigners - with no sign of £350 million extra per week for the NHS but a whopping great divorce bill of £39 billion - then everyone is entitled to ask if this is the right choice for our country.”

But the Prime Minister's official spokesman rejected Nigel Farage's suggestion saying: "We will not be having a second referendum.

And even his own party don't support his view.

The current leader Sir Henry Bolton said: "UKIP policy on a second referendum remains unchanged. The party opposes a second referendum."

But he insisted that in the event of a second poll Leave would win easily.

He insisted: "We are already seeing the benefits of leaving the European Union."

"None the less, to hold such a referendum would be to call into question the decisive importance of the largest democratic exercise ever held by this country and the unambiguous mandate the people gave the government on that day - the mandate take us out of the European Union.

He said a second referendum would be "damaging to the nation".