FARAGE REVEALS HOW HIS PARTY WILL REBRAND
We’ll drain Westminster swamp and give country longed-for political reform
NIGEL FARAGE plans to rebrand the Brexit Party as the Reform Party after we leave the EU, with an agenda of “draining the swamp” ofwestminster politics.
He has warned the political establishment that getting Brexit done is just the beginning and his party’s long term future will be about reforming Britain’s broken political system.
But in the short term, the veteran antibrussels campaigner has not ruled out taking on a role as an EU commissioner if requested by Boris Johnson.
Asked whether he would take on the role he laughed: “They haven’t asked. Shame, I know Brussels well.”
Mr Farage also chided Boris Johnson for copying him in the campaign – even to the point of staging a boxing workout.
Revealing his Union flag socks, he said: “Here’s my prediction. Boris will wear a pair in a week.”
Mr Farage was speaking during a visit to the key battleground seat of Dagenham and Rainham in Essex, traditionally held by Labour but now a target for the Brexit Party and Tories.
He predicted pollsters have overestimated the Labour vote in the election and many Labour voters will stay at home in what could be the lowest turnout in decades.
He said: “Are people telling pollsters they are going to vote Labour because they have always voted Labour but maybe just won’t bother? That’s the half suspicion I have got. I think the story of this election is Labour abstentionism.there could be a collapse in the Labour vote.”
He insisted the Brexit Party can pick up seats despite only fielding 275 candidates.
“To me there are a series of by-elections going on here.
“The last few general elections have been presidential, it’s been about the leader, you voted for or against the leader.
“But in this election, because people have identified as Remainers and Leavers, you are seeing people making tactical voting decisions, constituency by constituency on both sides.
“If there is a constituency where we are challenging Labour, don’t let Peterborough happen again [where Labour won because of a split in the Leave vote with the Tories].”
But Mr Farage sees parallels between his party and where Labour was in 1900 when it emerged and eventually was in government by 1924.
He said: “We might need to rebrand as the Reform Party. Definitely our appetite is for political reform. This country wants political reform. It’s sick of the whole bloody system.
“We talk about [Washington as] the swamp and we are beginning to talk about Westminster in the same way.
“It’s ludicrous. And the way the whole peerage and honours system has been used. The whole thing is corrupt.
“There is an absolutely massive disconnect. The idea of changing politics is completely on the table.
“Electoral reform 10 years ago was for the Oxford Union, now people actually understand it. They hate the House of Lords. This is going to be a big issue in the next few years.”
He has refused a seat in the Lords on a number of occasions but sees the way the Tories have allegedly used patronage to dissuade Brexit Party candidates standing as an example of the corrupt system.
“The way [the Conservatives] have just tried to buy everybody off is quite extraordinary and some people succumbed to that. Don’t underestimate the power of the big state.”
The Tories have denied making such offers. But he said many Brexit Party voters will not back the Tories now because of the alleged behaviour.
However, he has no regrets about compromising and claimed he “killed off the Remain alliance” by stopping the Liberal Democrats winning a “shed load of seats” in the south west.
He said the disengagement between Westminster and ordinary people will be shown at the polls with a low turnout.
“There’s hardly a poster anywhere. Even in farmers’ fields there’s not been a poster. In windows around the country.
“Turnout in 2017 was about 65 per cent. I think it may be down to 60 per cent.”
He believes that “Brexit has never been closer” but warns that Boris’s deal needs to be changed or there is a risk the UK will effectively be kept in the EU.
He also believes the problems faced by Donald Trump over impeachment in the US is a sign of a wider struggle of which Brexit is a part. “It is all about the breakdown of the principle of losers’ consent.trump’s victory and Brexit are not being accepted by large parts of the two countries.”