EU referendum: Nigel Farage announces independent UKIP 'No' campaign

The UK Independence Party will run its own stand-alone campaign arguing that Britain should leave the EU, the party's leader Nigel Farage has said.

The UKIP campaign will be run parallel to two already existing 'No' campaigns. Farage said UKIP had a "unique role to play" and the party would launch its campaign on Friday 4 September.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme the UKIP leader said his party would work alongside the broader coalition campaigning for Britain to leave the EU and would use its strong Eurosceptic credentials to mobilise its large body of supporters.

"UKIP is a political party and whoever gets the designation as the official campaign will have to be an umbrella of some kind," he said. "The unique role that UKIP can play within this is that we have 50,000 members, hundreds of branches across the country and we can do the ground campaign."

Farage said UKIP's strong showing in the 2014 European elections illustrated it had the support to swing a referendum vote in favour of the 'No' campaign.

He added that UKIP's decision was no different to that of the Scottish National Party which has said it will be operating independently within the 'Yes' campaign.

Farage said rather than looking to isolate itself, UKIP work with anybody to secure the 'No' vote in the forthcoming referendum.

"Let's be clear. I am not refusing to work with anybody. I will work with absolutely anyone for us to get a No vote in this referendum.

"There are two competing groups who want to get the nomination for the No campaign. All I am saying is I am not choosing one side or the other. We will work with whichever of them gets the nomination.

"But before we get to that point, I would hope there will be a coming together between the two of them, because I can see that both of them have good skills."

The Electoral Commission will decide which of the 'No campaigns' currently underway will be granted official status before the referendum vote in 2014. The official campaign will be given higher spending limits, a grant and be allotted specific air time for campaign broadcasts.

Farage hoped the two existing campaigns, the Business for Britain group and the 'The Know campaign', would merge to show clear opposition to the Yes campaign.

"What I do know is the Yes campaign is very active. Over the course of the last few months we have seen Richard Branson, Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson. They are out there campaigning and we need to get cracking," he said.