Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage threatened to fight for every seat in the Dec. 12 election if Prime Minister Boris Johnson refuses to abandon his divorce deal with the European Union and commit to a clean break.
Speaking at the launch of his party’s campaign at an event in central London, Farage said the “sell-out” deal agreed by Johnson on Oct. 17 “isn’t Brexit” and he will make sure every voter knows that before they go to the polls.
Farage is playing hardball. He wants to agree a “non-aggression pact” with Johnson in which Conservative candidates would stand down in seats where his party is well placed to beat Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
“There are around 150 seats in this country that are Labour-held constituencies that the Conservative Party have never ever won in their history,” Farage said. “The only way to solve this is to build a leave alliance across the country.”
There are concerns among Conservative activists that the Brexit Party will split the anti-EU vote in some parts of the country, costing them seats they could otherwise win. But the party has so far rejected Farage’s overtures in favor of selling Johnson as the man to “get Brexit done.”
His view matters. The Brexit Party topped the polls with 32% of the vote in EU Parliament elections in May and, while it is unlikely to win many seats under Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system next month, Farage is looking to cash-in on its power as a disruptive force.
Farage cited two by-elections as examples of places where “Leave” candidates could have won if there had been an agreement.
But he made clear the price would be for Johnson to abandon his deal with the EU and either pursue terms similar to Canada’s trade arrangement with the EU or leave on World Trade Organisation terms by July 1.
He compared Johnson’s deal with the EU to a used car with a shiny hood but a failing engine. It’s just Theresa May’s deal with a new coat of paint, he said.
“This is Mrs May’s appalling surrender deal. This is not Brexit,” he said. If Johnson refuses to ditch it, “by the time Dec. 12 comes along, the country will understand what’s in it, they’ll understand it’s not Brexit. We’ll make sure of that,” he said.
While he aimed most of his fire at Johnson, Farage said he will travel to Labour heartlands in the north, the Midlands, South Wales and east London to target districts which voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. Voters in those areas are alienated by Corbyn’s indecision over Brexit, he said, adding that it’s “lazy” to assume all Brexit voters are Conservatives.
Corbyn’s policy of renegotiating with the EU and then holding a referendum on whether to accept his deal or remain in the bloc “represents nothing less than a complete and absolute betrayal” for 5 million Brexit supporting Labour voters, Farage said.
The Brexit Party is also in talks with individual lawmakers about not contesting their seats, Farage said.
He will be flexible with members of Parliament “who renounce the withdrawal agreement, who renounce the deal,” Farage said. “In cases where they say this we will view them as our friends, not our enemies.”
Johnson’s Tories dismissed Farage’s demands and said the Brexit Party would simply drive voters into the arms of Labour.
“A vote for Farage risks letting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street via the back door,” Party Chairman James Cleverly said in a statement. “It will not get Brexit done and it will create another gridlocked Parliament that doesn’t work.”
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