Nigel Farage has announced that he will be standing as leader of the Brexit Party, after Prime Minister Theresa May succeeded in cancelling Brexit Day.
The Member of the European Parliament made the announcement on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in response to the news that Brexit day has been cancelled and the European Union had granted Theresa May an extension of Article 50 negotiations to April 12th, to give her time to pass her controversial Withdrawal Agreement.
Facing the prospect of a possible longer Brexit delay and the United Kingdom taking part in May’s European Parliament elections, the Brexit Party MEP confirmed, “I will take over as leader of the Brexit Party and I will lead this party into the European elections.
“We will put out a candidates’ list of people from right across the political spectrum — left, centre, and right, and we’ll do it on trust, Farage added.
“Our trust has been betrayed by politicians and if we fight those elections, it’s a chance to say what we think.”
The party’s interim leader, Catherine Blaiklock, resigned earlier in the week over tweets she had shared criticising Islam.
The move was confirmed by Mr Farage’s communications chief, Dan Jukes, in a tweet immediately following Mr Farage’s broadcast.
Mr Farage had pledged earlier in the week that if Mrs May pushes a long extension to “do my best to tear her party limb from limb. It deserves no better.”
The Brexit Party, which has been officially recognised by the Electoral Commission, was set up in anticipation of a Brexit betrayal, after which Britain would need strong, Eurosceptic representation in the European Parliament should Brexit be postponed or outright cancelled.
Fewer than ten days after the party launched, the former UKIP chief announced that some 100,000 people had signed up to it.
Mr Farage told listeners on Friday, that he was “disgusted” with Mrs May’s performance in Brussels, for begging Eurocrats for a Brexit delay.
“We were told we were leaving on March 29th, 500 MPs voted for us to leave on March 29, 100 times the Prime Minister told us it would happen! I think there is going to be a very strong sense from millions of people that this is a total failure of leadership,” the Brexit campaign leader said.
“What happened last night was a national humiliation which became an international humiliation. People are just laughing at us, but ordinary people aren’t — they’re angry.”
“Article 50 was clear that 500 MPs voted for. We leave on March 29th with or without a deal,” Mr Farage pointed out, adding, “There’s a big clear majority of people who want to leave with no deal without any kind of extension at all.”
Discussing the two-week cross-country grassroots protest March for Leave, the Leave Means Leave vice chairman said that he would continue to fight back against an establishment which is trying to overturn the 2016 referendum.
The only alternative, in his view, is to”roll over and allow a political class to ignore the greatest democratic exercise in the history of our nation — and I won’t do that.”
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