Nigel Farage has warned the next Conservative leader that they must take Britain out of the EU by the end of October or face a reckoning with his new Brexit Party at the next general election.

The former Ukip leader was swept to victory in the European parliamentary elections by millions of disaffected Conservative and Labour voters.

During a press conference with many of the party’s 29 new MEPs in central London this afternoon, Mr Farage said they were already beginning preparations to stand in all 650 seats at the next general election.

The Brexit Party wants Britain to leave the EU as soon as possible but Mr Farage said the Tories were “bitterly divided” and he considered it “to be extremely unlikely that they