FARAGE WARNED: IT’S NOT ENOUGH

As Brexit Party backs down, Tories say they still risk putting Corbyn into No10

NIGEL Farage was facing pressure last night to withdraw his candidates from Labour-held seats targeted by the Tories.

The Brexit Party leader yesterday scrapped plans to contest the 317 constituencies won by the Tories in 2017.

But polling experts said the move might still not be enough to hand the Conservatives a majority at next month’s election.

Brexiteers said this meant that Mr Farage’s candidates should stand aside in key Labour constituencies as well.

At his campaign launch in Hartlepool yesterday, the Brexit Party leader bowed to pressure and announced that he would concentrate instead on around 300 seats currently held by opposition parties.

The Tories need to snatch seats from Jeremy Corbyn in his party’s Leave-voting heartlands for Boris Johnson to get the majority he needs to deliver Brexit.

Asked if he would pull out further candidates where the Tories are the clear challengers to Labour, Mr Farage said: ‘I have not even considered that at this

moment in time.’ Pushed again, he said: ‘We’re fighting 300 seats, that’s all I’m going to say.’

Asked if he might ‘backpedal’ and tacitly back Tory candidates in some marginal seats, he added: ‘I have just taken 48 hours to make this decision – allow this one to settle first.’

Last week he had threatened to stand candidates in 600 seats unless the Prime Minister ditched his Brexit deal and promised to leave the EU without an agreement with Brussels.

But after the Conservatives rejected his offer of a ‘Leave alliance’ he came under intense pressure from within his own party to compromise – with at least 20 of his candidates withdrawing.

Mr Farage said he had taken the ‘difficult decision’ not to run against the Tories in seats they won in 2017 amid fears it could have let in significant numbers of Liberal Democrats, opening up the prospect of a hung parliament and a second Brexit referendum.

Addressing supporters at a rally in Hartlepool, Mr Farage said: ‘This announcement prevents a second referendum from happening. And that to me, I think right now, is the single most important thing in our country.

‘So in a sense we now have a Leave alliance, it’s just that we’ve done it unilaterally.

‘We’ve decided ourselves that we absolutely have to put country before party and take the fight to Labour.’ Mr Farage said he still believed the withdrawal agreement Boris Johnson negotiated with Brussels not deliver ‘the Brexit we voted for’ in the 2016 referendum. But he said he had been encouraged by statements from the Prime Minister at the weekend.

Mr Johnson had offered his rival an olive branch on Sunday evening by ruling out an extension of the Brexit transition period beyond the end of next year. He also stressed that he would pursue a ‘straightforward free trade deal’ with the EU that was ‘not based on any kind of political alignment’.

Mr Johnson yesterday welcomed Mr Farage’s announcement on the campaign trail in Wolverhampton.

The Brexit Party’s move will help the Tories defend seats, particularly in the South-West of England, where the Conservatives are under threat from the Lib Dems. However, polling experts yesterday sounded a note of caution as it will not boost the party in the target seats it needs to gain.

Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University London, said: ‘In the Labour and Lib Dem seats the Brexit Party is still standing in, they are far more likely to take votes from the Conservatives than Labour. In some places we are talking a ratio of 3:1.’

Chris Curtis, head of political research at pollster YouGov, said: ‘It is still the case that most marginal seats are Labour-Conservative battles and this is the most important dynamic in deciding who will be celebrating Christmas in 10 Downing Street.’

He added: ‘Given this, Farage’s decision to stand aside in current Conservative-held seats and not in Labour-held seats that the Tories will be looking to gain will likely make very little difference.’

Former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith yesterday described Mr Farage’s announcement as a ‘good thing’, but he urged him to go further by withdrawing from Tory target seats.

Steve Baker, Conservative chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, said: ‘The reality is that until Boris has got a clear majority in Parliament then Brexit is at risk and indeed the future of the country. I hope the right decisions will be taken overall to make that possible.’

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed that Mr Farage’s move could pave the way to a US trade deal, giving American pharmaceutical companies access to the NHS. He said: ‘Donald Trump told Nigel Farage to make a pact with Boris Johnson. Today, Trump got his wish. This Trump alliance is Thatcherism on steroids.’

Lib Dem deputy leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘Nigel Farage standing down shows the Conservatives and the Brexit Party are now one and the same.’

NIGEL Farage’s decision not to contest any of the 317 seats won by the Conservatives in 2017 suggests that he is finally starting to listen.

As this paper has repeatedly warned, the Tory vote will be split unless Brexit Party candidates stand down. The only hope of ever leaving the EU – and, crucially, keeping Jeremy Corbyn out – lies in a convincing Boris Johnson victory.

In putting pragmatism ahead of purity, Mr Farage has proved himself capable of acting like a mature politician – rather than the quixotic leader of a fringe pressure group. Well, up to a point. Welcome as it is, this gesture alone is nowhere near enough.

It’s a half-baked compromise which still leaves Brexit hanging by a thread – and the grim spectre of a Corbyn-led government looming as large as ever.

To secure the majority they need, the Tories must do far more than hold on to seats they already have. They have to win dozens of marginals, mainly from Labour.

In these constituencies every vote counts. And every vote for the Brexit Party decreases the chance of a Tory MP being elected. The very real danger is: Vote Farage, get Corbyn.

Mr Farage is a man who has campaigned passionately throughout his career to get Britain out of the EU. He now acknowledges that Mr Johnson’s withdrawal deal is the only realistic chance of achieving that.

So why on earth is he prepared to risk everything he has ever worked for out of a misplaced sense of pride?

If he really believes a Conservative victory is best for Britain – which it plainly is – he must do all in his power to make it happen. That means withdrawing candidates from ALL seats where the Tories have a genuine chance of winning.

Yesterday’s announcement represented a tentative first step on the road to Brexit salvation. Mr Farage and his supporters must now go all the way.