Nigel Farage turns up at 10 Downing Street claiming victory after the Peterborough by-election

He was speaking on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street on Theresa May’s last day as leader of the Conservatives.

Answering questions about losing the Peterborough by-election, Farage said: “Did we? I don’t know, if you think zero to 29% in a couple of weeks is losing, then it’s losing.

“From nowhere we produced a phenomenal result. If you look at the opinion polls put out by YouGov last night, they actually showed us six points in the lead across the country.

“They are astonishing figures for an organisation that Richard Tice and I launched eight weeks ago today.

“What you saw last night in Peterborough was too many Conservatives voted Conservative and let Labour win.

“It was a two-horse race between us and Labour, as it will be in many constituencies.

“The Tories need to understand those seats, if they vote Conservative they will get a Corbyn, Remainer government.

“We are the only people who can beat Labour in cities like Peterborough.”

When asked who he thinks will be the next leader of the Conservative Party, Farage said: “I haven’t got a clue.”

Farage’s decision to speak at 10 Downing Street followed him delivering a letter to the prime minister and copied to all the Conservative leadership candidates, asking for a role in Brexit talks.

It said: “The electorate have asked for us to come into the negotiating team and we are ready to do so immediately.”

After handing the letter to security inside Downing Street, the Brexit Party leader said: “We’ve got 55 days now of total impasse, while the government spends all its time working out who the next prime minister is.

“We’ve only got less than five months until we’re due to leave. We would love to start helping now.

“This is us saying to you: we’re not a protest party, we actually want responsibility, we want to get involved.”

He has claimed that he will hold his own trade talks with President Trump if he is not given a role by the Department of Trade.