Farage aims to be Brexit spoiler
Political rabble-rouser and talk radio host Nigel Farage says his potentially vote-splitting Brexit Party will field candidates for every parliamentary seat in Britain in the December general election, unless Prime Minister Boris Johnson agrees to abandon the withdrawal deal he negotiated with European leaders and form an alliance with the most zealous Brexit backers.
Farage flung the ultimatum at Johnson at a Brexit Party campaign launch yesterday, staged just a few blocks from the House of Commons, which party chairman and real estate tycoon Richard Tice disparaged as this ‘‘stinking, rotten borough of Westminster’’.
Farage had already made election news with a Friday radio interview with a caller from the White House.
In that call, United States President Donald Trump disparaged Johnson’s Brexit plan, saying it could sink a free trade deal with the US. But he also praised the prime minister, and urged Farage and Johnson to form an electoral pact, saying the duo would be an ‘‘unstoppable force’’.
Johnson yesterday ruled out an alliance with Farage or any other party, ‘‘because I don’t think it’s sensible to do that’’.
He also delicately dismissed Trump’s assertion about trade.
‘‘I don’t wish to cast any aspersions on the president of the United States, but, in that respect, he is patently in error,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘Anybody who looks at our deal can see that it’s a great deal.’’
Farage called Johnson’s deal ‘‘a sellout Brexit’’, and compared the prime minister to a used car salesman trying to sell a lemon to a fool.
Farage wants Britain to crash out of the European Union’s trading club without a deal, and do business with Europe, its closest economic partner for 40 years, as a ‘‘third country’’ under World Trade Organisation rules.
He also said that if Johnson and the Tories did not join in a ‘‘leave alliance’’ with the Brexit
Party, and make a pact over which seats to contest, then his party would field candidates throughout England, Scotland and Wales. This could lure voters away from the Conservatives and deny Johnson the majority he wants to get his Brexit deal through parliament.
Farage has never won a seat in parliament, despite trying seven times. His new single-issue Brexit Party won big in the May elections for the European Parliament, taking 32 per cent of the vote, far ahead of Labour (14 per cent) and the Conservatives (9 per cent).
Farage was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999 – a body he holds in contempt, though he does accept the comfortable salary, home and travel allowances, pension and money for staff. In addition, Farage has been awarded housing subsidies, drivers and cars by his Brexit backers.
The Conservative Party line, as chairman James Cleverly put it yesterday, is that ‘‘a vote for Farage risks letting Jeremy
Corbyn into Downing Street via the back door’’. Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party and a committed socialist, surprised many in the 2017 election when Labour’s support surged and denied the Conservatives a majority government.
In his radio interview with Farage, Trump dumped on Corbyn, saying he ‘‘would be so bad for your country’’. Many in Britain, on both the left and right, felt discomfort at hearing a US president forcefully meddle in domestic politics.
Corbyn tweeted: ‘‘Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected.’’
Meanwhile, Johnson has abandoned the threat of a no-deal Brexit in the Conservative manifesto, in a move designed to capture the centre ground, The Times has been told.
His manifesto will focus on ‘‘getting Brexit done immediately’’ by pushing his ‘‘fantastic’’ deal through the Commons as soon as MPs return. This is in stark contrast to Johnson’s previous ‘‘do or die’’ pledge to leave the EU with or without a deal on October 31.
The Tories believe that they can use the promise of Johnson’s deal to appeal to soft Liberal Democrat voters who have significant concerns about the impact of a possible second Brexit referendum.
The manifesto will have a strong focus on law and order, with Home Secretary Priti Patel expected to play a prominent role during the campaign. Ministers have been told that polling on law and order has shown the Tories to be ‘‘streets ahead’’ of Labour.