Brexit Party, Conservatives fail to clinch voting pact
LONDON — Britain’s Brexit Party has failed to reach a tactical voting pact with the ruling Conservatives, saying Thursday that it will field 300 candidates in next month’s election to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to deliver on his promise of a clean break with the European Union.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said the party had to contest the seats in Britain’s Dec. 12 election to keep the pressure on Johnson, rebuffing
Conservative arguments that doing so risks splitting the proBrexit vote and boosts parties that want to remain in the EU. His comments came on the final day for candidates to register.
“What we’ve got so far in this campaign is for Boris to promise to change direction, what we now have to do is to hold him to account, to make sure we get a proper Brexit, and that’s my job,” Farage told the BBC.
Britain is holding a national election on Dec. 12 because Johnson wants to secure a majority so he can take the United Kingdom out of the bloc by the next Brexit deadline of Jan. 31. All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs.
Johnson reached a Brexit deal with the EU but so far has not persuaded enough British lawmakers to pass it. The singleissue Brexit Party, meanwhile, prefers to leave the EU without a deal, something that economists say would damage both the British and EU economies.
The Brexit Party earlier this week agreed not to run candidates in 317 parliamentary seats currently held by Conservative lawmakers after Johnson pledged there would be no further extension of the Brexit deadline. But the Daily Telegraph reported Thursday that Farage rejected a lastminute strategic offer from the Conservatives to promise to put up only token opposition in 40 key seats if the Brexit Party would stand aside in other constituencies.
After the deadline for candidate nominations passed, Farage tweeted that a top Johnson adviser had been calling Brexit Party candidates and offering them jobs if they would withdraw from their races.
“The system is corrupt and broken,” Farage said.
At least one Brexit Party candidate did withdraw at the last minute. Rupert Lowe tweeted that he had decided not to run because he did not want his candidacy to strengthen the Labour Party’s chances in his district in central England.