LONDON — The Brexit Party staged a rally Friday wrapping up a nationwide tour that has drawn in frustrated Leave voters who fear political chicanery will keep Britain in the EU.

"We managed to turn that anger into hope and optimism," party leader Nigel Farage told a packed hall in central London.

"We are going to get our chance to get even with this parliament."

The Brexit Party believes people who voted leave in the 2016 EU membership referendum are being betrayed by MPs.

Britain is due to leave the European Union on Oct. 31 but the Brexit Party fears it will be delayed by MPs for a third time.

While the mainstream parties have been fighting over Prime Minister Boris Johnson's leadership, the unlawful suspension of parliament and the stuttering negotiations with Brussels, outside London and under the radar, the Brexit Party has been getting on with a series of rallies around the country.

Instead of a traditional annual congress, the Brexit Party staged a conference tour throughout September, holding nine rallies beyond the major cities.

The tour visited Colchester, Lincoln, Doncaster, Sedgefield, Southport, Telford, Newport, Exeter and Maidstone before Friday's London event.

The US-style gatherings are punctuated with loudspeakers, pumping music, glaring lights, pantomime boos, standing ovations, placards reading "I am ready" — and a hero's welcome for Farage.

Friday's London rally, exactly 25 weeks on from the party's formation, saw 1,000 people pack out the Emmanuel Center, having paid £5 for a ticket — plus a further 300 supporters in another room who could not get in.

The rally was opened by party chairman Richard Tice, a property investment businessman.

"Given the shenanigans we've seen in Westminster, we have to be ready for absolutely anything," he said.

"This zombie parliament won't give us, the people, a vote. Why? Because they're terrified.

"We're way past 'peak Boris' and now we're in a situation of complete stalemate."

The crowd was also whipped up by Ann Widdecombe, 71, a former Conservative minister who has become a star turn at Brexit Party rallies.

"Our message to those wimps at Westminster is very straightforward: they have a choice. Either Britain leaves the EU or we will make sure that they leave Westminster," she said.

Widdecombe said Britain was "angry, frustrated and fed up" with the "shambles of a parliament".

"Heed the people, or go." — AFP