Tory defector sets out Brexit Party platform
A lifelong Conservative supporter, who thought Margaret Thatcher was “amazing”, is the Brexit Party’s candidate in the Peterborough by-election. Mike Greene, who helped back the music app Shazam and appeared on Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire, turned his back on the Tories when Theresa May failed to take Britain out of the EU on March 29. Mr Greene met Nigel Farage for the first time on Tuesday, and says he would make a good prime minister.
Alifelong Conservative supporter who was an early investor in the music app Shazam and appeared on Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire is the Brexit Party’s candidate for next month’s Peterborough by-election. Mike Greene, a former trustee of Peterborough cathedral and local benefactor, will fight the June 6 by-election in a bid to give Nigel Farage’s party its first foothold in Westminster.
Such is the pace of activity in the four-week-old Brexit Party that Mr Greene only met Mr Farage for the first time on Tuesday night at a rally in Peterborough. All candidates for the by-election have to be declared by 4pm today.
When we met near the town’s railway station yesterday, Mr Greene had managed to tell his wife Julia of his decision but not his two daughters – Amelia, 16, and Rosie, 20.
But he is in no doubt that the Brexit Party needs its first MP to start to break the stranglehold of Labour and the Conservatives on Westminster.
He says: “The Brexit Party is the only party that has absolute clarity of focus on delivering the democratic vote.
“I have 16-year-old and 20-year-old daughters. If I believed for one second with one cell in my body Brexit would do any harm to their future I would not be [standing]. But I believe in quite the opposite. Brexit is what we need to do to give us the controls that we need of our laws, our borders and lots of things about our trade.”
Despite barely knowing Mr Farage, he says that he would make a good prime minister, saying that it is “not beyond the realms” of possibility.
He says: “He has always impressed me … Politicians hardly ever answer a question – they just fudge. Nigel answers questions, he says what he thinks and he believes what he says, and that is all we want out of our politicians.
“[People] want someone who is going to listen to their views, their needs, who is going to represent them in the world and be honest with them.”
The seat has traditionally been a fight between the Conservatives and Labour. Labour’s Fiona Onasanya won the seat in the 2017 general election with a majority of 607 over longserving Brexiteer Tory MP Stewart Jackson. But the by-election was called after voters effectively sacked
Onasanya in a recall petition after she was jailed for perverting the course of justice for lying to police to avoid a speeding ticket.
Mr Greene, 54, has no idea if he will win – the Brexit Party has not even carried out any polling to see if there is an appetite for its offering locally.
But with Labour and the Tories both in a muddle over Brexit, all bets are off in a seat where 61 per cent of local people voted to leave in the 2016 European Union referendum.
Voters “are angry, disappointed and hurt by the fact that our parties have let us down” by the failure to leave the EU on time, Mr Greene says.
Of Onasanya, he says: “She was a complete joke – had never lived here to my knowledge. I attend lots of business and charity functions and in two years I never saw her. What a let-down. She went to prison for lying, came straight out and voted against the 61 per cent who voted for Brexit. It is absolutely right that she has gone and my passion for standing is to help deliver the democratic vote.”
In normal times, Mr Greene would appear to be an ideal candidate for the Conservative Party. He has voted Tory all his life, joined for several years, and attended fundraising dinners for Mr Jackson, who held the seat from 2005 to 2017. “I thought Margaret Thatcher was amazing,” he says.
But all that changed when Theresa May failed to take Britain out of the EU, as she had repeatedly said she would do, on March 29. Mrs May “is dishonest, not just with the public but with her own party. How many times – 108, I think – did she promise we would leave on March 29?”
Mr Greene has a rags to riches life story. He was brought up in a council house near Luton, sharing a bed with his two brothers until the family moved to Peterborough in 1975, when he was 11.
He left state school with eight O-levels and built a successful career as a retail entrepreneur and consultant with spells at Spar, Conocophillips and Shell. Mr Greene bought the Him research consultancy, before he sold it in 2012 at the age of 46, leaving him with “enough [money] that I didn’t need to work again”.
Investments followed in a range of start-ups, including the music app Shazam, which was later bought by Apple. An appearance on The Secret Millionaire in 2011 made him realise he wanted to spend more time at home and he threw himself into his local community, speaking to schools about business, mentoring start-ups, donating more than £250,000 to 40 local charities and becoming a trustee of Peterborough cathedral.
Mr Greene was first approached by the Brexit Party to be its candidate 10 days ago by Richard Tice, the party’s chairman, after the party spotted his pro-brexit postings on the Linkedin website. Mr Greene had never imagined he would enter politics. “I have strong political views but I have never had any intention or interest in running to be a politician.
“I am a businessman – I am a
‘How many times – 108, I think – did [Theresa May] promise we would leave on March 29?’
passionate advocate of the city and I believe a lot in the charity and that has been my life for the last few years.”
Mr Greene defines Brexit as “getting control of our laws, our borders, our trade in a democratic way”.
When I ask if he will quit as an MP if either the Tories or Labour deliver this version of Brexit, he says: “No, because the two-party [system] is broken.
“I don’t believe they will be right for the future … we have got to hang on, see it through and then make sure that it is delivered going forward as well.”
With no manifesto, Mr Greene could find himself writing his party’s policies if he wins the by-election. He says: “I will be able to vote in the way that I believe is best for Peterborough. You wouldn’t replace the windscreen wiper on a car when the engine has blown up. My first priority is about [delivering] Brexit.”
Mr Greene hopes he will be the first of many new Brexit Party MPS, likening its appeal to Coca-cola.
He says: “In their first year they sold 21 gallons – they probably sell 21,000 gallons a day now.
“I am a businessman and I know that if you listen to your customers, your constituents, and deliver what they need and when they need it … they keep coming back.”