Nigel Farage has revealed he will take his Brexit Party to Westminster to fight the next General Election in order to stop Remainer MPs from blocking Brexit.
In comments to The Sun on Thursday, Mr Farage said he would use the European Parliament elections — where the Brexit Party is already in first place in opinion polls — as a “springboard” to running the party in the next UK national election, scheduled for May 2022.
“We want the European election to be the first step of a massive change that resteps entirely British politics and actually makes it look more like the country,” Mr Farage told the tabloid.
The Brexit Party leader continued, “MPs will realise that if they carry on trying to stop Brexit, they’ll lose their seats at the next General Election. I think they will be very fearful of what the Brexit Party can do to them.
“That’ll give them two choices — either they change and start to deliver Brexit, or we’ll replace them at that General Election… If you show people you’re capable of winning in one set of elections, people will start to believe that it’s possible in a General Election too.”
The announced intention came after The Brexit Party unveiled several other candidates on Thursday, including journalist and social commentator Martin Daubney who co-founded the Men & Boys Coalition, a network of groups and individuals focused on gender-based issues that affect boys and men including male suicide, school achievement, and fatherhood.
Also announced was James Wells, formerly of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), who resigned from the civil service to run for office; pro-Brexit activist and opera singer Lucy Harris; property investor Louis Stedman-Bryce; Danish-born NHS dentist Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen; and Nigerian-born lawyer and daughter of two judges Elizabeth Babade.
On Wednesday two other big-hitter candidates were announced for The Brexit Party: retired Royal Navy Admiral who formerly commanded the UK’s fleet of submarines Rear Admiral Roger Lane-Nott and former Conservative Party grandee Anne Widdecombe.
Miss Widdecombe told the Express after being ejected from the Tories for joining The Brexit Party, “Nigel Farage has been more successful than any politician other than Margaret Thatcher in my lifetime in getting his agenda through and he’s done this from outside Westminster.”
These candidates join others announced in recent weeks including Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of Tory Brexiteer and chief of the European Research Group Jacob Rees-Mogg; free-speech campaigner, former Marxist and Revolutionary Communist Party member Claire Fox; and decorated veteran James Glancy.
Ms Rees-Mogg told Sky News on Thursday, “I think Nigel Farage has caused a revolution in this country.
“We wouldn’t have got a referendum in the first place had he not been in charge of UKIP and it looks like we wouldn’t get Brexit unless the Brexit Party does well now, which he seems to be achieving so far.”