Banks gives Farage ‘48 hours to save Brexit’
Donor calls on party leader to stand down a further 150 candidates in Conservative target seats
Christopher Hope
Camilla Tominey
NIGEL FARAGE was told last night that he had “48 hours to save Brexit” as a major donor to the Brexit Party urged him to stand down another 150 candidates in Conservative target seats.
Arron Banks, a key Leave campaigner, told The Daily Telegraph Mr Farage had to “smash Labour in 40 or so seats where the Tories are nowhere”.
Meanwhile George Farmer, who gave £100,000 to the Brexit Party in May and June, urged Mr Farage to withdraw half of the 300 candidates he planned to stand. However, Mr Farage reacted defiantly, saying: “I put country before party yesterday and now will take the fight to Labour. Three hun- dred nominations have been signed off – time to get on the road!”
Yesterday, the Tories rebuffed requests by intermediaries acting on behalf of Mr Farage to swap weaker Tory candidates into seats that the party had a realistic chance of winning.
Mr Banks said that if the Brexit Party would not agree a deal then the two parties should stand “paper candidates” so they would not campaign hard against each other in key seats.
The multimillionaire co-founder of Leave.eu said: “Nigel Farage standing down 300-plus Brexit Party candidates ... to unilaterally create a winning Brexit alliance will go down as the most selfless act by a British party leader in political history. We need to see further moves to stand down candidates in marginal seats they can’t win and go for the 40 or so Labour seats where the Tories haven’t got a hope.
“There are 48 hours to save Brexit and save the country from a Corbyn government ... It’s time to smash Labour in 40 or so seats where the Tories are nowhere, win five out of 10 seats and have some real clout in the new Parliament. In return, the Tories should stand down in those seats or field paper candidates.”
Mr Banks added: “Nigel reminds me of a gambler at a casino that’s been winning all night and it’s time to take
‘Nigel reminds me of a gambler ... that’s been winning all night. It’s time to take the chips off the table’
the chips off the table and step away.” Mr Banks said the Brexit Party risked becoming a “vanity project rather than a vehicle for delivering Brexit” due to a “split” inside the party.
Separately, Mr Farmer backed Mr Farage and urged him to go further by standing down half his 300 candidates.
Mr Farmer, whose multimillionaire father, Lord Farmer of Bishopsgate, is a former party treasurer and life peer, told The Telegraph: “I think Nigel has done the right thing – we need to get Brexit done and we need a Leave parliament. What we don’t want is Leavers fighting between themselves in seats where we have MPS who are going to vote to get us out of the EU.
“The Brexit Party could fight 300 seats but I think it would be better off fighting around 150. I think Boris [Johnson] should now respond by standing down candidates in those Northern Leave constituencies which the Tories have never had a hope of winning. I would take quality over quantity when it comes to the number of seats the Brexit Party contests.
“Look at the influence of the SNP and of the DUP – you can be a huge player in Parliament even with a comparatively small number of MPS.”
A campaign – savebrexit.org – was launched yesterday, allowing constituents to plead with Brexit Party candidates to “Stand Down and Save Brexit”.
A spokesman said: “This general election is the only opportunity to deliver a stable Leave majority so that we can finally achieve Brexit. But by stubbornly refusing to stand down across the board, the Brexit Party risk splitting the Leave vote. The only pro-brexit majority is a Conservative majority. Nigel Farage is selfishly risking handing Remain a majority.”
Last night, Louis Stedman-bryce, the Brexit Party’s Scottish MEP, announced he would step down as a general election candidate in protest at Mr Farage’s decision not to contest any Tory-held seats.