farage



Nigel Farage’s Brexit party is set to stand a full slate of candidates across Britain in the forthcoming general election as Prime Minister Boris Johnson ruled out forming an electoral alliance. In a significant blow to Mr Johnson’s hopes of winning a parliamentary majority, the Brexit party leader said that if the Conservatives did not agree to a “Leave alliance” by November 14, “the Brexit party will be the only party standing in these elections that actually represents Brexit”. The prime minister responded that he would not countenance Mr Farage’s deal and voting for any other political party would ultimately help install Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street and may harm the chance of Brexit being delivered. “I will be very, very clear that voting for any other party than this government, this Conservative government, this One Nation Conservative Government is basically tantamount to putting Jeremy Corbyn in,” Mr Johnson told the BBC. “This Conservative government has Brexit ready to go, and to vote for us is the best way of getting it over the line as fast as possible,” he said, suggesting that he will aim to pass his Brexit deal “very very soon” if he wins the election. Speaking in central London on Friday, Mr Farage promised to field candidates in every seat in England, Wales and Scotland. “Don’t doubt that we are ready,” he said. “There is two weeks to put together a Leave alliance and it has to be done.” Pollsters believe that if the Brexit party runs a full slate of candidates in the December 12 poll, Mr Farage risks splitting the Leave vote in scores of marginal seats, undermining Mr Johnson’s pro-Brexit Conservative party and potentially handing victory to pro-Remain candidates from Labour or the Liberal Democrats. He urged the prime minister to “drop” the withdrawal agreement struck with the EU “because it is not Brexit”, adding that he would be “more than willing to compromise” if Mr Johnson’s freshly minted deal was abandoned. “It’s a negotiation, I’ve laid out the upper end of expectations,” Mr Farage said. “We are reasonable, sensible people. We want to get this done.” Mr Farage called on the Conservatives to pledge to leave the EU without a deal and pursue a trade agreement by July 1 2020. If a deal has not been agreed by this deadline, he said the UK should instead adopt World Trade Organization trading terms. “In terms of winning seats, no one knows how punishing the [first past the post electoral] system is better than me. There are many more seats that are three-way marginals where a score of 30/31 per cent can win. It’s going to be much easier to win seats in constituencies than in [recent] elections.” He added that he had had conversations with “people who visit that building [Downing Street] regularly”, including ministers in the Johnson government. Recommended UK general election Brexit lowers bar for election victory, study finds Attacking Jeremy Corbyn for a “complete and utter betrayal on Brexit”, Mr Farage said his party “posed a very major problem” for the Labour leader. Citing the “5m Labour party voters” who voted to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum, he warned: “So many Labour Leave seats are represented by Remain members of parliament. We view those constituencies around the country among our top targets.” It is still unclear whether Mr Farage himself will stand. His allies have previously said there have been efforts by the Tories to “buy him off” with a peerage but he has insisted he is not open to such blandishments.

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