Brexit Party’s new recruits start to quit the field
Around 20 of Farage’s candidates have left and more are set to follow after leader’s war on the Tories
NIGEL FARAGE yesterday set out his plans for Brexit Party candidates to fight every seat in the country at the general election as it emerged that more than 20 of his candidates have already quit.
Last night a Brexit Party source confirmed that more than 20 Brexit Party candidates had stood down over concern about Mr Farage’s dismissal of Mr Johnson’s deal and other factors.
A defiant Mr Farage said yesterday he is determined to win the backing of millions of disaffected Labour Leave voters. The Brexit Party leader said he would intensify efforts to win over five million “vulnerable voters” in Labour constituencies this week, starting with rallies in Yorkshire and the east Midlands today.
Mr Farage said: “Labour seats offer us our best opportunity.” He added: “When you go out to these Labour constituencies that voted Leave and are now represented by Remain MPS there is more anger there about the lack of representation than in any other part of the country.”
Yet Mr Farage dismissed claims that fielding hundreds of Brexit Party candidates would take away support from the Tories and hand power to Labour or the Libdems.
He pointed out that in 2015, Ukip, of which he was leader at the time, “did far more harm to the Labour Party than we did to the Conservative party, indeed David Cameron would never have got a majority had it not been for nearly four million votes cast for Ukip in that election”.
“The missing ingredient in this whole debate is the extent to which traditional working Labour voters, patriotic to their fingertips, who voted Brexit, believing it was the right thing to do... are in nearly every case now represented by a Remainer Labour MP.
“What Westminster does not seem to comprehend, what the commentators have not latched onto, is those five million are the most vulnerable group of voters for the Brexit Party in this country.”
Mr Farage intensified his anger at Conservative Brexiteers like Jacob
Rees-mogg, accusing them of being “arrogant and conceited” by insisting that they could deliver on the result of the 2016 EU referendum with Mr Johnson’s deal.
He told a rally of hundreds of Brexit Party candidates in central London: “Jacob Rees-mogg, who I like personally, said this morning that the Brexit Party should stand aside and leave it to the Conservatives… There will be no Brexit without the Brexit Party.”
Asked later if he was still in talks with the Tories about an electoral pact, he said: “I have given up with all that now – they have been so b––––- rude, what’s the point?”
Mr Farage added: “Jacob thinks we should all stand aside and allow him to betray us nice and slowly – it is ludicrous. I like him as a person but the attitude of the party is arrogant and conceited. They want to take us to a place that is not recognisable as Brexit... I have tried like crazy, week after week, to put together a Leave alliance that will win a huge majority and all I get is abuse back.”
Mr Farage said his single demand was that Mr Johnson “gets rid of the treaty – we didn’t spend all this time campaigning to leave to find that we are not actually leaving”.
The Brexit Party had yesterday been expected to publish the details of many of its 630 candidates to fight the main parties at the Dec 12 general election. Yet the details of only seven were made public.
The party source said that around 3.5 per cent of the party’s 630 candidates had stood down, some over Mr Farage’s position on the Government’s Brexit deal, and others because of abuse expe
‘What Westminster does not seem to comprehend is… those five million are the most vulnerable group of voters for the Brexit Party’
rienced by Brexit Party candidates who had been unveiled by Mr Farage over the past few weeks. The source said: “There is a lot of grief out there. It has been going on all summer. It is not good, but it is life.”
Stephen Peddie, a former candidate in Tonbridge and Malling, said: “I’ve quit as a PPC (prospective parliamentary candidate) in exasperation. I suspect I’m far from alone.”
Paul Brothwood, who stood down as the party’s candidate in Dudley South, added: “It feels good to be back in the Conservative family who are committed to delivering Brexit.”
He told The Daily Telegraph that 10 per cent of the party’s candidates could quit. A Brexit Party spokesman said Mr Brothwood’s claims were “rot”.
‘I’ve quit as a [Brexit Party] PPC in exasperation. I suspect I’m far from alone’