Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has revealed today in a visit to the North East that former Newcastle United chairman Sir John Hall is supporting the party.

Speaking before the rally at the Rainton Arena in Houghton Le Spring near Sunderland at a mass rally Mr Hall said he has been a lifelong Conservative but feels "disillusioned".

Mr Hall told reporters: "I am a disillusioned conservative supporter. I have supported the conservative party since the Thatcher days.

"I just feel that they have let me down. They have let me down from the point of view of my culture.

"When you get older, (I’m 91) your culture and your past means a lot. I’m an Englishman and I’m very proud of being an Englishman.

"I just look around today and the thing that disturbs me is that I’ve become a stranger in my own land."

In his speech after a dramatic entrance with pyrotechnics, Mr Farage addressed the crowd.

He said: “I’m going to ask you to put football rivalries aside for a moment, I’m delighted that joining us today, supporting us, giving us a donation after decades of publicly supporting the Conservatives, somebody who has been a phenomenal, amazing success story, indeed role model for people in the North East, with us today, supporting us, with us now is Sir John Hall.”

Mr Farage spoke to a crowd of geared up supporters, saying there is “deep sense of unease” and something is “very wrong” with the UK.

He said: “We all have a deep sense of unease. Something is going very, very wrong with the country that we’re part of, with the country that we believe in, with the country we want our kids and grandkids to grow up in.

“We have spent time indoctrinating a younger generation, that everything about our past is wrong. We’ve been poisoning the minds of our young people, that I think is absolutely appalling. I want them to learn that whilst not everything in our history is perfect, actually, there is no country in the world with a better past than us.”

Moving on to discuss knife crime, Mr Farage said: “The number of young people out there now threatening people, stealing mobile phones and carrying knives makes us all, wherever we live, think twice about going out in the evening, and I’m aiming this particularly to young people.”

He added: “They’re deeply fearful that other young people are carrying knives, so there’s a sense of unease about that and the answer of course to that is a completely different, less woke approach to policing – and we should be executing stop and search, stop and search, stop and search.”

The leader later received cheers and applause at the rally when he discussed small boats crossing the Channel, stating “if it’s not an invasion, what the hell is it?”

He said: “As for the small boats, well, it was me going out into the English Channel repeatedly in the spring of 2020 filming, explaining that unless we got a grip on this, that it would be a huge problem.

“And I dared to use a word, a word so repulsive that it must never be repeated in polite society. A word so awful that I’m to be a pariah for the rest of my life.

“I dared to say that I feared there would be an invasion of small boats across the English Channel. Well now – 4,000 boats and 128,000 people later – if it’s not an invasion, what the hell is it?”

Earlier, Mr Farage referenced former prime minister Theresa May, saying: “We won the European elections we got rid of the useless Mrs May which was a good scalp I can tell you. One of the most useless prime ministers of modern times, although there is fierce competition.”