NIGEL Farage made his comeback to frontline politics with the launch of his new party - and declared Brexit was a "state of mind."

The former UKIP leader also claimed he would be happy to fight a second referendum on EU membership as long as it was held in 20 years time.

Mr Farage was speaking at the launch of his The Brexit Party which plans to put forward candidates if the UK enters the European Parliament Election on May 23.

He spoke to around 150 supporters at the launch which was held at metal spraying firm BG Penny & Co, Coventry.

Around 40 protesters stood outside the venue chanting against the politician and holding banners such as "Farage - Not Welcome Here - Say No To Hate".

During the event, Mr Farage introduced several of the candidates the party plans to put forward for the European Parliament.

These included journalist Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of ERG leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, and businessman Ben Habib, CEO of the First Property Group.

Also standing will be Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthburt, former teacher and film studies lecturer, and June Mummery, a fishing industry activist.

When asked whether he was worried the Leave campaign would lose a second referendum, Mr Farage said: "You cannot have a second referendum until you implement the first referendum.

"I'm very happy with a second referendum, we had one in 1975, and then we had one in 2016.

"All right, the world moves a bit faster these days, give it 20 years, have another referendum and that's fine.

"If however we are forced into having a second referendum, the first thing to say is that the question has to be the right question.

"The idea that it would be Mrs May's treaty against the existing European treaties would be an outrage.

"What I did say is that I would spend the day down the pub, but I'm somewhat a reformed character now so what I would do is go and spoil my ballot paper.

"We have to have a proper question if there is to be a second referendum.

"It's very interesting how large sections of our commentariat and our media are completely ignoring what has happened in the last five weeks in this country which is a dramatic shift in the opinion polls.

"A dramatic shift towards leaving on World Trade Organization terms.

"Now, every single region of England and Wales with the exception of London now has big majorities [for leave].

"In the case of the Midlands it's a 16 per cent majority of people here who want to leave with no deal as opposed to remain.

"So I think we would win anyway."

When asked about the difference between the Brexit Party and UKIP, Mr Farage said: "Ukip have attracted shall we say a loutish fringe and we certainly saw that when we had the Leave Means Leave rally after the march from Sunderland the other day in Parliament Square.

"I don't think that Middle England, decent people want to vote for a political party that is linked to extremism, violence, criminal records and thuggery.

"That's why I left Ukip and it was a difficult thing for me to do, it really was.

"However, I now look back at it and think 'maybe Ukip served its purpose'.

"Maybe it did what it was set up to do.

"It did precipitate that referendum.

"But the Brexit Party is not here just to talk about the European issue.

"The very word 'Brexit' is no longer just about leaving the European Union.

"The word Brexit represents a state of mind.

"It represents the great battle of our day and that battle is the people versus the politicians, that is what Brexit means.

"This party is not just about going out with the intention of winning those European elections, it's not just about making sure that referendum is delivered on.

"We are about fundamentally changing politics in this country."

Supporter Phil Blackburn, 60, travelled from his home in Berkshire to watch the launch of the new political party.

He said: "This is the first time in my life I have ever attended a political meeting and I have certainly never been a member of a political party.

"We are in a situation where we have got a Government that is behaving so outrageously incompetently and unfaithfully in not carrying out its mandate.

"It's probably a sign of the times that we have got ordinary, middle of the road, slightly left, slightly right of centre people like me are beginning to get angry and that's unusual in Britain.

"But I suspect there's many thousands of people like me feeling we are being betrayed. There's no doubt about it."

Delphine Gray-Fisk, 74, a retired airline captain from Farnham Common, Bucks., said:

"We are here today because we just want to make sure the result of the referendum is enacted.

"We cannot believe it. We thought our job was done.

"We all knew exactly what we were voting for and we are just waiting for it to happen.

"We cannot believe how it's been undermined by Parliament."

William Roberts, 43, director and owner of a construction business, from Colchester, Essex, said: "I have been following Nigel for a while, with the Ukip days in the past.

"I'm traditionally a Conservative member and backer of the Conservative party but views on Europe have always been contentious for Conservatives.

"They are fairly split through the party on where they stand.

"For most of the people here today, the Brexit Party is about a protest to say 'enough is enough'.

"We need clear direction and we need someone to stand on a platform to say 'this is what we want, this is how we are going to do it'."