FARAGE CALLS THE SHOTS
He wants role in Brexit talks ... and warns of ‘betrayal’
Nigel Farage demanded a role in Brexit talks last night as he vowed to ‘stun’ mainstream parties in the next general election.
The Brexit Party’s jubilant leader put his opponents on notice that he will put up candidates in every constituency whenever one is called.
He warned the next Conservative leader that they must take Britain out of the eU by the end of October or face a reckoning with his party. He said a failure to leave then would be ‘seen as the second great betrayal of a date that was promised’.
And he savaged Tory leadership candidates including frontrunner Boris Johnson, saying he himself was the only person who could deliver Brexit.
The Brexit Party notched up 32 per cent of the vote in the european elections and ended the night with 29 MePs, making it the largest group in the european Parliament.
it absorbed hundreds of thousands of votes from the Conservatives, who slumped to fifth place with just four MePs.
Mr Farage told a rally in central london the european results would ‘put pressure on the Tories, and pressure on the many leadership candidates’. ‘Are they going to respond? if we don’t leave on October 31 then i believe we can produce a result in the next general election that will stun them,’ he said. He criticised Mr Johnson for describing Theresa May’s deal as ‘vassalage’ and then voting for it the third time it was proposed.
‘The Conservative Party is bitterly divided,’ he said. ‘i think it is extremely unlikely they will pick a leader who is able to take us out on October 31, come what may.
‘Some of them condemned the european treaty – some people called it vassalage and reducing us to slave status. And then what do they do? They voted for it. So why would you trust any of them?’
Mr Farage said the party would do well in next week’s by-election in pro-leave Peterborough, called after labour MP Fiona Onasanya was convicted of perverting the course of justice following a speeding offence.
‘We’re going to give this our very best shot – i am not going to predict victory, but we’re running them close. And we’re all going to interview and assess 650 candidates to fight the next general election,’ he said.
Mr Farage demanded a seat at the Brexit negotiating table, telling Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We have got men and women with considerable business experience. We want to be part of that negotiating team. We want to take responsibility for what’s happened and we are ready to do so. i hope the government is listening.’
The Brexit Party topped the polls in every region in england apart from london. it also dominated in Wales and came second in Scotland. Mr Farage said his party’s victories had been at the expense of both the main parties, adding: ‘Terrible night for the Conservative Party. But look at labour as well.’
‘We are going to stun them’