Nigel Farage has confirmed he is planning to launch a new political force to save Brexit, vowing he “won’t lie down” as the political establishment tries to overturn the referendum result.
The Brexit pioneer, who resigned from UKIP last week, told the Sunday Telegraph: “I sense within me I have not fought my biggest battle yet — that is how it feels. Whether it is happenstance, serendipity, destiny.
“I am not going to lie down and watch it go down the plug hole. I couldn’t do that. And I won’t do that. If there are European Parliament elections I am standing and I am thinking about vehicles do to that,” he added.
Though Britain is supposed to leave the EU on March 29th 2019, two years after the Article 50 clause of the Lisbon Treaty was triggered to begin the Brexit process.
Mr Farage said he believes there is “a 55 to 45 per cent chance” that delays will see the United Kingdom still in the bloc when the May 2019 elections to the EU Parliament take place.
“My view is that, between now and Christmas, Article 50 will be extended. Is there a lot of conversation about what then happens? Yes. If the Brexit ball is dropped completely, it will have to happen,” he told the Mail on Sunday.
“Look, I make this absolutely clear, if they suspend Article 50 and we fight in the next European elections, I will be there.”
Mr Farage — who led UKIP on and off for nearly a decade, before quitting due to the direction the party has taken in recent months — said talks with figures from the worlds of business and politics had been underway about creating a new vehicle, the name of which was still “to be confirmed”.
“I will be looking to get some high-profile figures in from across the business and political spectrum. I am talking about something very different. I have sounded out a few people,” he told the Telegraph.
“I am working on the concepts right now. It won’t be a one-off shot, it will be the birth of something much more remarkable than UKIP was.”
The 54-year-old Brexit frontman, who has repeatedly insisted he never planned nor wanted to have to come back to politics after securing the historic referendum result in 2016, blasted “cowardice in the Tory party … throughout this whole [negotiations] process” or the current political crisis.
“My game plan had been to see Brexit through, move to America for four or five years. I get on well over there, Trump is going to get re-elected so Washington DC is a good place,” he told the Telegraph.
“But I have always said that if the ball gets dropped on Brexit I will have no choice but to pick it up. It increasingly looks like that is the case.”
The Government has insisted that the United Kingdom will not participate in the next round of European Parliament elections, promising it will be out of the bloc by then — in name if not in practice, due to the obligations imposed on Britain by the so-called “transition” period after Brexit which is currently planned.
The Electoral Commission set aside hundreds of thousands of pounds to prepare for Britain’s participation in the European election several months ago, however, with the backing of the Speaker of the House of Commons — raising fears that a plan to derail or at least delay Brexit has been envisaged for some time.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.