Nigel Farage insists the yesterday’s independence referendum has changed the face of British politics – even though the Scots opted to stay in the UK.

Voters north of the border said ‘no’ to independence with 55% opting to stay in the union, while the Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond saw his ‘yes’ campaign defeated.

And UKIP leader Farage, who was visiting Middleton yesterday to boost the party’s bid to gain the late Jim Dobbin’s seat in the October 9 by-election, insisted that it is time to focus on ‘forgotten’ England.

He said: “It’ll never quite be the same again, something fundamental has changed from this, we need a new constitution settlement that is seen to be fair to the English because the English have been forgotten about.”

Despite Scotland staying in the union, promises of more devolved powers are expected to be upheld by the Government after they backed the Better Together campaign.



TIME FOR A SHAKE UP: Farage meeting supporters in Middleton

The visit to Greater Manchester was also an opportunity for Nigel to meet and greet the people of Heywood and Middleton along with the UKIP candidate for the area, John Bickley.

The by-election has been called due to the sudden death of Labour MP Jim Dobbins who had held the traditionally-safe Labour seat for the last 20 years.

Mr Farage said: “What’s happened in the North of England is the Labour party have parachuted in, John is a man of the people and that’s what people like about UKIP. We have a cross section in our party – the other three parties are staffed with career politicians.”

Beer-loving Mr Farage then went onto have a drink with locals in the Roebuck pub, Middleton to rally up support ahead of the vote, which will take place on October 9.

UKIP won 27.5% of the vote and had 24 MEPs elected in May’s European elections as the party continued to grow.