Farage Brexit Party enlists candidates for EU poll

A NEW pro-Brexit party is lining up prominent businessmen and academics to stand in European Parliament elections, Nigel Farage has revealed.

With the Tories and Labour now scrambling to select candidates in time for the poll on May 23, the former Ukip leader has confirmed that his new “Brexit Party” will be competing for all 73 seats aside from three in Ulster.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph last night, Mr Farage said many of the party’s representatives would hail from non-political backgrounds.

“We will have a full slate of candidates featuring people from all walks of life, including business and academia, and all areas of the country,” he said. “Many have never been party political before and some of them will have instant name recognition.”

It comes 24 hours after Mr Farage announced that he would be standing for re-election to the European Parliament, adding that they now looked “certain they will happen”.

While he claimed he was “not happy” about it, he said was not prepared “after 25 years of endeavour watch British politicians roll us over”.

Writing for The Telegraph on Friday, he added that his new party was “fully mobilised” and had begun “raising good sums of money”.

In a warning shot to Theresa May, he claimed that the two main political parties “underestimate the dramatic shift in public opinion that has taken place in recent weeks and months”.

It comes after a YouGov poll published on Friday found that a quarter of Leave voters would now vote for Ukip or the new Brexit Party.

Meanwhile, Gerard Batten, the Ukip leader, yesterday scotched suggestions that Tommy Robinson, the founder of the far-Right English Defence League, would stand for the party. Asked whether he was on Ukip’s list of candidates, Mr Batten told LBC that Robinson was prohibited from standing as he was neither a party member or permitted to join under the current rules. “It’s never been possible, and he wouldn’t be considered anyway,” he continued.

“The only people who have been selected are ones that have either had a proven track record of loyalty to the party or fought previous elections for the party, or in one or two cases which are going to give us a bit of fun in that election are people who can give us a lot more exposure in the social media.”