By sending in 600 troops to fight Boris Johnson, even Brexiteers fear Farage risks the very Brexit he craves
‘You always know that an organisation is in trouble when people believe their own propaganda’
It was supposed to be the day Nigel Farage threw down the gauntlet to the Westminster elite he has spent his entire political career trying to conquer.
Yet as the Brexit Party leader yesterday unveiled some of his 600 troops to fight the general election on Dec 12, the politician who has arguably battled more than any other to take Britain out of the EU was accused of risking the referendum result altogether by the very Eurosceptics who have long hailed him as a champion of their cause.
There were also suggestions that ego may have got the better of the self-styled “man of the people”, with one insider last night describing Farage as suffering “messianic hubris”.
While he may have given what was described as a “barnstorming” bravura performance at the candidates’ launch at Westminster’s Emmanuel Centre, behind the scenes some have called into question the tactics of this military history buff.
One source close to the former Ukip leader suggested he had “painted himself into a corner” in declaring that his party would only step aside for Tory MPS who denounced Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.
Such tactics may have worked when Theresa May was trying to foist Brexit In Name Only (Brino) onto an increasingly irate electorate, but with polls almost universally finding that voters just want Brexit done – rather than more protracted wranglings over deal or no deal – it is no wonder that leading Brexiteers Jacob Rees-mogg and Steve Baker have accused Farage of risking Brexit altogether by splitting the Leave vote.
Even Brexit Party members are concerned that their leader risks ushering in a Remain coalition if he doesn’t back down.
Scotland’s former Brexit Party MEP David Coburn urged people not to vote for his former Brexiteer brethren, saying: “It is a hollowed-out shell with no members but supporters and no manifesto.”
And serving MEP Belinda de Lucy was forced to admit the party had no “realistic” hope of winning the election.
Even Arron Banks, Farage’s old
Leave.eu comrade, has accused him of acting like a “dog in the manger” amid suggestions that the Brexit Party will not win any seats in Parliament.
So why has Farage chosen to go head-to-head with Mr Johnson, a man whom he described in 2012 as “the only Tory politician who Ukip members listen to and agree [with] much of what he has to say”?
Has bravado got the better of the bullish former metals trader and his chairman, the multimillionaire Richard Tice?
Yesterday, Tice – the straight man to Farage’s flat-capped, pint-swilling persona – insisted the Tories would never be the Brexit Party and urged supporters to “stay strong, stay firm and be as courageous as our leader”.
Yet according to the insider: “Messianic hubris is characterising Tice and Farage. You always know that an organisation is in trouble when people start to believe their own propaganda. Power corrupts, absolute power ...”
Another source close to Farage dismissed such claims: “If the Tories had offered to partner up then I think he would have supported the deal. He knows intellectually it isn’t the purest Brexit but he could have lived with it had there been some kind of pact. Farage and Tice were offering to only stand in less than 50 seats but when the Tories didn’t give him the nod, Nigel felt duty bound to go on the attack.”
Yesterday’s move appears to have angered some Brexit Party MEPS including John Longworth, who co-founded Leave Means Leave with Tice, and had suggested the party should embrace the deal while contesting just 20 seats.
In a sign of the divisions at the heart of the Leave movement, one insider said tribal loyalties could be at play, describing Farage’s inner core as “largely Ukip” and “an echo chamber that looks like a temple”. A party spokesman said the claim was “fatuous”, pointing out that “about two” members of the 40-strong staff were former “Kippers”.
Farage has insisted that he cannot mastermind the Brexit Party campaign and stand as an MP at the same time, telling delegates yesterday that he was better served campaigning in every seat rather than just one. In the absence of anything so far resembling domestic policy, local candidates are a key theme of the Brexit Party campaign.
Having suggested that “the two big tribes in British politics are reassembling”, Farage is again under pressure to prove that his unique brand of personality politics has the power to out-brexit Boris Johnson.