To all my Brexit Party colleagues: For the good of the nation, stand aside

... by the ‘Workington Man’ candidate who’s done just that

EVERY Brexit Party candidate preparing to stand in the General Election faces a soulwrenching decision.

All ardently want the result of the EU referendum to be honoured – but by contesting a seat against a Tory they risk seeing the opposite happen.

I do not say this lightly. Until a few days ago, I was a Brexit Party candidate in Workington, the Cumbrian town where I was born.

Traditionally Labour and more recently strongly Leave, the constituency epitomises this monumental General Election battle. If Boris Johnson is to achieve anything close to a Commons majority, he must win seats such as this.

For some time, I wrestled with my conscience.

I felt intensely proud to be standing for Parliament in a constituency in which I have deep roots: my greatgreat-uncle played cricket for Workington and I still have his presentation bat from the 1883 season.

So when the party told me this week that, despite my long family history in Workington, it wanted to move me to stand in the neighbouring Conservative seat of Copeland, my misgivings about the party splitting the vote became too troubling to dismiss.

That is why my decision to resign my candidacy has been the most difficult I have ever made. And it is why, more in sorrow than in anger, I urge all other Brexit Party prospective MPs: please think deeply and objectively about what you are doing.

Ask yourself if, by standing, you risk siphoning votes away from the only party that can realistically hope to deliver any kind of Brexit – the Conservatives.

ASK yourself, too, how you would live with the shame and guilt if, as a result of your idealistic intervention, you ended up putting Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street, perhaps at the head of a shabby coalition of socialists, Lib Dems, Scottish and Welsh nationalists and Greens. In the worst- case scenario, the Brexit Party could split the Tory vote so Corbyn and his bully-boy puppet-master John McDonnell would be handed power outright.

A Labour government would not only halt Brexit permanently, it would plunge this country into an economic nightmare. I cannot imagine anything more hideous.

That is why I was so torn. My heart urged me to stand up for the sort of Brexit I believe is best for Britain: a clean break from the corrupt EU.

But my head tells me that if we don’t compromise and back Johnson’s flawed deal, we will be shackled to the EU until it collapses and dies – probably dragging us with it.

I felt I had no choice but to send the message: ‘ Back Boris. A vote for the Brexit

Party is a vote for Corbyn.’ It was a long way from the time when, full of hope, I put myself forward to the newly formed Brexit Party in May as a potential candidate.

I was up for the challenge, having worked as a farmer, barrister and author. And I understood Cumbrian culture, which is more than Nigel Farage seems to do.

We’re a reserved lot in Workington: we tend to be suspicious of enthusiasm, and we see through flattery and flannel. At a recent rally here, Mr Farage – more used to fanfare and standing ovations – may have been bemused to have been greeted in a packed hall by restrained applause.

Perhaps, like many politicians, he didn’t appreciate such frankness. The people in that room were waiting to be impressed. They wouldn’t dream of giving their full support until he and his candidates had earned it.

Then, once given – as it used to be for the Labour Party up here – it would have been his for life.

Those honest men and women will be no more impressed than I am that Mr Farage himself has decided not to stand as an MP.

A leader should lead from the front. To hide at the back is an admission that he cannot win and fears humiliation. This is dispiriting to the millions who support Brexit and whose vote he seeks.

Mr Farage claims that 5 million former Labour voters will desert Corbyn on December 12. An outright Labour victory, he believes, is impossible even if the Brexit Party splits the Tory vote. But he’s wrong. On doorsteps in Workington, I spoke to many older Labour traditionalists who said they couldn’t stomach Corbyn’s tacit support for Remain, his destructive far-Left economic policies, his support for terrorists or the disgusting way his party has become mired in anti-Semitism.

I fear, however, that when these constituents get to the polling stations, old habits will be too strong.

Writing this has caused me agonies. It isn’t the way I wanted my new life in politics to end.

But I plead with every other Brexit candidate to do what I have done: examine your conscience in the cold light of reason. And if you think you risk splitting the Tory vote, then for God’s sake – stand down.