Senior Tories ‘prepare to join Farage Brexit party’
SENIOR Tories from the “heart of the Conservative party” are poised to join the new Brexit Party if there is a delay to Britain leaving the EU, it was claimed yesterday.
The “well-known names” could team up with the new party, backed by Nigel Farage, in May’s European elections.
The party said it will field hundreds of candidates if Brexit is delayed significantly beyond the March 29 deadline.
Leader Catherine Blaiklock said she is waiting on the outcome of a crunch parliamentary vote on Theresa May’s deal.
It comes as the Prime Minister was warned dozens of her MPs are planning to back a plot to delay Brexit if she puts the country on course to leave without an agreement in place.
Leaders of the 100-strong Brexit Delivery Group of Tories wrote to Chief Whip Julian Smith setting out widespread upset at the prospect of a no-deal departure.
Conservative Eurosceptics opposed to the Prime Minister’s exit plan risk derailing Brexit altogether, the group warned.
Ms Blaiklock said her party is ready to pounce if the Parliamentary logjam continues and exit day is pushed back.
“Everything is going to depend on next week’s vote, if there is a vote, or whenever it happens,” she said. If the UK takes part in European
‘I am talking about people who are at the heart of the Conservative Party’
elections we will go full blast into them. We have a massive candidate list already, miles more than the 200 that has been reported.”
She said the potential candidates come from across the political spectrum, although none is thought to be an MP.
“There are great numbers of people who have stood for other parties who like to have a look-in, there are MEPs who’d like to have a lookin, there are all sorts of business people and people who are new to politics,” she said. “I am talking about people who are at the heart of the Conservative party. People who are well-known names.”
Former Tory leader Lord Howard dismissed suggestions Brexit should be delayed and insisted warnings about the impact of a no-deal departure had been exaggerated. We must leave, and I believe we must leave on March 29,” he said.
Meanwhile, Theresa May was warned there will be “no deal in the desert” as she prepares to call on EU leaders to help her secure a Brexit deal during talks in Egypt.
The Prime Minister will hold a series of one-to-one meetings in the luxury Sharm-el-Sheikh resort in the hope of securing concessions ahead of another round of crucial votes in Parliament next week.
But Eurocrats played down the chances of reaching a breakthrough over the two-day summit that starts tomorrow.
The conference is being held to strengthen Arab-European relations, including boosting trade.