THE deputy leader of Basildon Council has written to the Prime Minister calling for church bells to sound across Britain to mark Brexit.

Independent councillor Kerry Smith, second-in-command at Basildon Council, has asked his officers to request that churches in the borough ring their bells on January 31, at 11pm, as the UK leave the EU.

He told the Echo this should be a nationwide scheme, but will push for the idea in Basildon. He said: “I’ve asked an officer to ask St Martin's Church to ring the bells at 11 o’clock.

“This was a couple of weeks ago now. I’m getting the feeling they are not too keen.

“I wrote to the Council over Christmas to try and get this introduced."

Councillors Smith, who stood as and independent MP and came third in the General Election, came under fire in August after he branded the EU as “just as bad as the Nazis.”

The deputy leader also stated at the council meeting that the country “voted to leave the Fourth Reich and become a sovereign nation”.

At the same meeting, he also put forward the idea of Basildon having Brexit parties on the streets once the country had left the European Union.

He stated that he is still supporting this idea.

Sir David Amess, MP for Southend West, appeared to show some support.

Writing in the Independent he stated Big Ben should chime on January 31.

This comes after Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, tabled a motion in parliament in December, calling for Big Ben to chime.

His motion received 55 signatures, including those of Sir David, and the former Brexit secretary David Davis.

The motion stated that arrangements should be made for the clock tower, which is currently undergoing maintenance, and usually only rings on Remembrance Sunday and New Years Eve, to provide “appropriate focus for a historic national event” at the end of January.