FARAGE WON’T STAND IN ELECTION
Brexit Party leader accused of cowardice after failing to win a seat SEVEN times
AFTER seven failed attempts at becoming an MP, Nigel Farage yesterday ditched plans to stand in next month’s General Election.
As the Brexit Party leader prepared to unveil 600 parliamentary candidates today, he was ridiculed last night for claiming he had ‘no time’ to fight a seat himself.
Instead Mr Farage vowed to ‘campaign across the length and breadth’ of the country, telling people why he believes Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal deal with the European Union is a ‘betrayal’ of Leave voters.
However, Catherine Blaiklock, who founded the Brexit Party but quit in March over anti-Islam tweets, said Mr Farage’s decision showed he knows the party is a ‘busted flush’. Labour MP Jim McMahon mocked Mr Farage, writing on Twitter: ‘Imagine the gaffer not being willing to stand but expecting others to. Says it all.’ While Angela Eagle, another Labour backbencher, remarked: ‘Frit – or too much like hard work?’
‘Frit’ was used as an insult by Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister to insinuate that Labour’s Denis Healey was frightened of facing her in an election.
And last night there was a growing backlash over Mr Farage’s decision to field candidates against Conservatives, with even his close political allies warning that he risks helping Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn get into No 10 by splitting the Tory vote. The Brexit Party is not expected to pick up any seats after slumping in the polls, but could take away enough votes from the Tories to stop them winning marginal constituencies.
At the Brexit Party’s General Election campaign launch event on Friday, Mr Farage insisted his candidates have a chance of winning some seats in the Commons, despite his own electoral travails that has seen him fail to become an MP on seven occasions. But yesterday, when asked if he was going to stand himself on December 12, Mr Farage told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘I’ve thought very hard about this – how do I serve the cause of Brexit best, because that’s what I’m doing this for.
‘Do I find a seat to try to get myself into Parliament, or do I serve the cause better traversing the length and breadth of the United Kingdom supporting 600 candidates. And I’ve decided the latter course is the right one.’
He added: ‘It’s very difficult to do both. It’s very difficult to be in a constituency every day and at the same time be out across the UK.’
In the run-up to the 2015 election, Mr Farage abandoned travelling around the country in the final weeks of the campaign as he concentrated his efforts on the South Thanet seat in Kent, where he was standing for Ukip.
Yesterday Mr Farage defended his decision to field candidates in almost every seat across the country unless Mr Johnson ditches his Brexit deal, claiming it is not ‘genuine’ and ‘is not Brexit’.
He added: ‘My fear is, if Boris Johnson gets this treaty through we will never achieve independence, and that’s why I’m saying all the Prime Minister has to do is change course and I would back him 100 per cent.’
Arron Banks, who campaigned with Mr Farage under the Leave. EU banner during the 2016 referendum, warned that Mr Farage risked losing Brexit altogether by splitting the Tory vote. And Miss Blaiklock, a one-time Ukip economics spokesman, labelled Mr Farage’s stategy as ‘kamikaze’.
Treasury minister Rishi Sunak hit back at the criticism of Mr Johnson’s withdrawal deal, telling Mr Marr: ‘I campaigned for Leave, I spent a lot of time talking to my constituents and others across the North East and in Yorkshire – what do they want from Brexit?
‘They want to end free movement and replace it with a points system, they want to end the fact that money keeps going to the EU year after year, they want to make sure we’re in control of our laws, and also they want us to have an independent trade policy. These are all things the Prime Minister’s deal deliver.
‘What I would say to Nigel Farage is, sometimes in politics, as in life, you’ve got to take yes for an answer.’
‘How do I serve the cause of Brexit best?’