Farage stand threatens tosplitBrexitvote
Nigel Farage has announced that the Brexit Party will field candidates in every constituency if the Tories do not withdraw from the recently agreed Brexit deal with the EU
He claims the deal is not Brexit. What on earth is he thinking about? Instead of settling for some of what he and Boris Johnson both want, Nigel Farage would rather split the vote and let Labour or the Liberal Democrats through.
We would then end up stuck for evermore in the EU with an extreme left-wing Labour government headed by Jeremy Corbyn.
I – and many more Tories - voted for the Brexit Party in the last European election to express a collective dissatisfaction with the mishandling of Brexit by Theresa May and her government.
I shall nevertheless be voting Conservative in the forthcoming general election, but I am sure there are many Tories who will still vote for the Brexit Party because they wanted a no-deal exit.
Nigel and his party should settle for Boris’s deal for now and not scupper the chance of a Tory victory, a large Conservative majority at Westminster and at least the first steps to leaving the EU altogether.
Once Boris has been returned as prime minister, there will be plenty of opportunities later to finish the job.
If Nigel persists in this suicidal policy, probably the best way of averting complete disaster at the polls would be for the Conservatives not to put up candidates against the Brexit Party in constituencies in the north of England and elsewhere which have been Labour strongholds in the past but where the majority of the electorate voted to leave the EU in the referendum.
In safe Conservative seats and marginal constituencies where the Tories have the best chance of defeating Labour, it is more likely that traditional Tory voters and leavers will support the Tory candidates.
Nonetheless, it would be a lot simpler - and wiser – if Nigel Farage would rethink his foolish decision and not challenge Conservative candidates where they have the best chance of defeating both Labour and Liberal parties.
Brexit and Tories going head-tohead in every constituency would be a disaster.
George K McMillan Mount Tabor Avenue Perth