VIDEO: Ukip leader Nigel Farage urges vote for ‘historic Brexit’ during impassioned speech in Gloucester last night

The polarising politician spoke at the GL1 Leisure Centre alongside fellow Ukip members as part of his ‘Say No to EU’ nationwide tour.

The visit, his first to the county in over a year, marked Ukip’s renewed focus on Gloucestershire in next year’s local elections and a move to garner support ahead of the referendum on Britain’s place within the European Union.

The controversial party leader entered the stage to rapturous applause and a blaring rendition of ‘The Final Countdown’ by the somewhat aptly named Swedish rock band ‘Europe’.

Addressing a crowd of around 500 supporters at a sold-out Glevum Hall, he put forward his impassioned argument for a ‘Brexit’.

Farage, who led his party to secure four million votes nationwide in May, told the expectant crowd the vote in the EU referendum would be the most important political decision of their lifetimes.

"We finally have the opportunity to vote in an historic, once-in-a-lifetime referendum,” he said.

“With over 75 per cent of our laws made in Brussels we are no longer a self-governing nation. We have no control over our borders. Our European passports are the same as those shared by over half a billion people.

“This is a long way from the common market our parents voted for all those years ago.”

Speaking in his capacity as co-president of the EFDD Group in the European Parliament, he argued the UK could ‘stand tall’ economically without the support of the EU.

Dismissing the Prime Minister David Cameron’s ‘phony’ renegotiation process of the UK’s place within the 28 member bloc, he stressed to the audience that there was one overall question facing them.

“Our current leaders have lost confidence in who were are as a nation, who we are as a people. I believe we are good enough to stand on our own,” he told the energetic crowd.

“There are lots of arguments about business and trade and they are very important, but ultimately question at this referendum is about identity.

“This referendum is about asking the question; who are we? What do we want our country to be? What do we want Britain’s place in the world to be?”

At this point a massive picture of the EU’s blue and yellow flag was shown on screens on either side of the Ukip leader.

“Who among you would swear allegiance and fight for this flag?” he demanded to a chorus of boos.

As the red, white and blue of a giant union flag was beamed onto the screens he again demanded of the audience; “and who would fight for this flag?”

This gathered undoubtedly the loudest cheer of the night.

From here the Ukip leader moved onto the issue of immigration, saying that the UK’s current EU border policy were ‘completely and helplessly out of control’.

It was this, he claimed, that had led to a depression of wages of UK workers, the ‘chronic shortage’ of primary school places, overcrowded hospitals and stretched public services.

“But the thing in my view that will swing this referendum is the question of open borders, the question of immigration,” he continued.

“We want a Britain where we control the flow of migration, where we control the numbers, and whereby people that come to Britain to work have got a skill or trade they can bring.

“We want people who come to work in Britain to bring their own private medical insurance, and we don’t want people with criminal records.”

But while migration controls were key, he said there was a far more ‘sinister and pressing issue’ gripping the EU and threatening the safety of the UK.

This, he insisted, was the ‘dangerous’ policy drive to equally distribute refugees across the EU that was being championed by the German leader Angela Merkel.

“I think this is one of Europe’s greatest policy errors in 20 years,” he said, “it’s happening on a scale that’s difficult to believe.”

“What Merkel has done by making her speech was to take out the cork out of the champagne bottle.

“There is a limit to what Britain can do to help,” he said.

He insisted that while the party was not ‘mean spirited’ it wanted what was ‘best for Britain’.

Farage finished by urging ‘the people’s army’ of Ukip to stand up and campaign for a ‘historic Brexit’.

“Ukip believe we would be better of economically, better off politically outside the EU. We believe in our own country, we believe in her people. We want our country back.”

The party leader shared the platform with William Dartmouth MEP, Dr Julia Reid MEP and former Labour mayor and sheriff of Gloucester Harjit Gill.

Richard Ford, Ukip's parliamentary candidate for Gloucester in May's general election, said: "It has been an amazing  evening. To get this number of people to turn out on a dark November night  for a political meeting is unprecedented for Gloucester.

"Nigel's speech was constantly interrupted by thunderous applause and standing ovations. The political tide in Gloucester and Gloucestershire is turning , and people are seeing that UKIP is now the only party which will challenge the Tories, provide an effective opposition and hold them to account.

"This bodes very well for UKIP in the council elections in Gloucester, Stroud and Cheltenham next year."

Despite securing four million votes in the general election Ukip only managed to win one seat.

In Stroud the party won 4,848 votes, eight per cent of the overall tally. This was a six per cent increase since 2010 – the biggest vote increase in the constituency.

The EU referendum is set to take place before the end of 2017.

The question is as follows: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?

• Before the meeting the Ukip leader spoke to SNJ reporter Jamie Wiseman. Click here to find out more.