NIGEL Farage launched Ukip’s election manifesto in Thurrock today declaring: “We want our country back.”

Mr Farage released his party’s 74-page document, entitled Believe in Britain, to a packed audience at the Thurrock Hotel in Aveley.

Launching the manifesto in Thurrock was seen as a significant boost to candidate Tim Aker’s campaign to take the seat from the Tories - something the party are increasingly confident of doing.

The party have proposed a £18 billion “tax giveaway” by cutting £32 billion a year from government spending.

Cuts would come from the likes of foreign aid spending, leaving the EU and scrapping the HS2 rail link.

Mr Farage, who was joined on stage by deputy leader Paul Nuttall, deputy chairman Suzanne Evans and MEP Patrick O’Flynn, said his party had a plan to make working people better off.

He said this manifesto was “serious and fully costed”, after famously calling the party’s 2010 effort “drivel”.

Mr Farage said: “I believe we’ve set a new gold standard as to how manifestos in this country should be done.”

Other policies included scrapping hospital parking charges, a cut in business rates for small businesses and the abolishment of the inheritance tax.

The launch came just 48-hours after Mr Farage and candidate Mr Aker toured South Ockendon before addressing over 1,000 people at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet.

The Thurrock seat is one of the tightest in the country and a three horse race between UKip, Labour and the Conservatives.

The Tories took the seat in 2010 from Labour by just 92 votes, and the race this time around could be just as close.

Mr Aker, who was born in Thurrock, and his party are growing increasingly confident they’ll take the seat in three weeks time.

Speaking to the Gazette, Mr Aker said it was a proud moment for him to have the manifesto launch in his home constituency.

He said: “It’s an incredible vote of confidence to me from the party.”

He added: “It shows that the national party is taking Thurrock very seriously and that we can win here and we’re throwing everything at it.

“As the only local candidate on the ballot paper the message is resonating with the people of Thurrock that we’ve had enough of being forgetting and neglected.

“It’s time for a change and that’s what we’re offering today.”