Brexit Party to run in hundreds of seats in the general election
Nigel Farage is set to launch an assault on hundreds of seats in a major threat to the Conservatives’ hopes of gaining a majority in next month’s general election.
Farage is set to launch the Brexit Party’s election campaign this morning, just a day after it was rumoured the party would only run for about 20 seats.
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Farage told The Times this was “idle speculation” and that the party would field candidates in hundreds of seats.
However, it is understood the party will not run candidates against Tory Eurosceptic MPs.
The Brexit Party’s campaign could pose a threat to Boris Johnson’s election plans, with a recent JL Poll 49 per cent of Leave voters felt “betrayed” by the Prime Minister’s inability to take the UK out of the EU on 31 October.
The news comes after Farage hosted US President Donald Trump on his LBC radio programme last night.
The Brexit Party leader asked Trump if Johnson should drop his withdrawal bill and go for a no-deal Brexit.
Trump told Farage: “You and I have become friends over the last couple of years and you saw what was happening with my thing just like you saw what was happening over there [on Brexit], you’re like a great tea-leaf reader.
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“But I’d like to see you and Boris get together cause you would really have some numbers cause you did fantastically in the last election.”
The Brexit Party are sitting at an average polling position of 11.4 per cent, according to Morning Wire‘s own analysis.
These numbers – an average of the past 16 major polls – put them in fourth place, with Johnson’s Conservatives leading the way on 35.69 per cent of the vote.
Political scientist Professor Rob Johns, from the University of Essex, told the BBC Radio 4’s the Today programme that Farage’s election plans will hit the Tories worse than Labour.
“It was possible for somebody who was, let’s say, somewhat UKIP somewhat Labour inclined in 2017, to kind of shelve the EU issue because it wasn’t clear what Labour were saying about it,” he said.
“But if you’re still saying that you’re Brexit Party inclined now, you’re probably somebody who has an extremely hard line on the EU issue, a line that’s now irreconcilable with where Labour has gone.”
Labour launched its campaign yesterday with a speech by Jeremy Corbyn, which attacked “bad bosses” and “greedy bankers”.
Experts believe the speech set the tone for a Labour election strategy revolving around a class warfare narrative.
City figures hit back at Corbyn for the speech, with retail tycoon Mike Ashley calling him “clueless”.
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Ashley told Morning Wire: “I agree 100 per cent that the system is corrupt as proven by the recent case of Debenhams and Goals, where yet again the independent shareholders get wiped out.
“The real problem is politicians such as Corbyn being unwilling to do anything about it.”