Brexit Party can pull off the same result in general election, says triumphant leader
Victory in the MEP poll is merely a taste of things to come, says Farage as he eyes an even bigger prize
NIGEL FARAGE has suggested that the Brexit Party will win a general election if Britain does not leave the EU on Oct 31, as he prepared to “interview” 650 candidates for Parliamentary seats.
The Brexit Party’s 32 per cent vote share would translate to 458 seats in the House of Commons if replicated in a Westminster poll, with the Conservatives losing every single MP.
Mr Farage said the support for the Brexit Party would be “repeated” in a general election if Brexit was delayed again, and that he was already “getting ready” to fight one.
Speaking after the Brexit Party, which did not exist six weeks ago, returned 29 MEPS to Brussels, beating the Tories into fifth place and Labour into third, Mr Farage said the message that voters had delivered to Labour and the Conservatives was: “Get Brexit done or die.”
Mr Farage, who was elected for his new party in the South East, said: “History has been made. This is just the beginning.
“Listen, I’m off to the office now, we’ve got 650 candidates to interview, [to] vet. If we don’t leave on Oct 31 then the Brexit Party could stun everybody in a general election, too.”
Mr Farage has not yet announced any of his party’s policies other than leaving the EU, but he insisted: “We’re not just here to leave the European Union but to try and fundamentally change the shape of British politics, bring it into the 21st century and get a Parliament that better reflects the country.
“Never before in British politics has a new party launched just six weeks ago topped the polls in a national election. The reason, of course, is very obvious: we voted to leave in a referendum, we were supposed to do so on March 29 and we haven’t.
“If we don’t leave on Oct 31 then the scores you have seen for the Brexit Party today will be repeated in a general election – and we are getting ready for it.”
Electoral analysts said that while it was highly unlikely that the Brexit Party’s vote share would hold up in a general election, the Tories would be unable to form a majority, paving the way for a coalition of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party.
Mr Farage said he would not “trust” any of the Tory leadership candidates enough to form an alliance with them, even if that could command an overall majority in Parliament.
“Which of the leading Tory contenders did not vote for the worst deal in history, Mrs May’s new European treaty?” he said. “Why would I trust any of them? Why would I believe any of them?
“The Conservative Party are bitterly divided and I consider it to be extremely unlikely that they will pick a leader who is able to take us out on the Oct 31 come what may.
“We might overnight have made their lives a bit easier, but I don’t see them being able to deliver and I think the real barrier, the real obstruction to all of this is a two-party system that
‘Never before has a new party launched just six weeks ago topped the polls in a national election’
may well have worked in decades gone by but is no longer fit for purpose.”
Mr Farage said the Brexit Party should be part of the team negotiating the country’s exit from the EU after being given a “mandate” to do so.
“At the end of the day it’s about what voters want. I think either the Conservatives and Labour parties take us towards Brexit or they are going to have to be replaced – it’s as simple as that,” he said.
“This is the vote that says put no-deal Brexit back on the table, make it part of our negotiations, because without that we have no chance of getting a sensible, fair trade deal and I want us, as the Brexit Party, to be engaged in that.
“If you look across the country, it’s about 52:48 – we’re pretty much where we were three years ago. Things haven’t changed, people haven’t changed their minds.”
Another of the Brexit Party’s MEPS in the South East is Alexandra Phillips, who is preparing for instances of mistaken identity when she arrives in Brussels because she has the same name as another MEP representing the same region.
Ms Phillips will take her seat in the European Parliament alongside the Green Party’s Alexandra Phillips, who was previously the mayor of Brighton and Hove.