Conservative Party donors have reportedly asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to agree an election pact with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.
The Sunday Times has been told that at least two major financial backers have urged Prime Minister Johnson that in the event of a snap General Election, he comes to an agreement with Mr Farage where the Tories would not run candidates in Labour’s heartlands, where the Brexit Party is predicted to do well, and likewise the Brexit Party would not challenge Brexiteer Conservatives for their own target seats.
“There are some donors who would like to see an electoral pact with Farage,” one donor told the newspaper, adding: “The party is not necessarily listening to donors at the moment but has made it clear that it will do whatever is necessary to deliver Brexit.”
Mr Johnson has so far ruled out a pact with Mr Farage, whose party won the European Parliament elections in May, though Brexiteer Tory MP Andrew Bridgen told Breitbart London in June that the Prime Minister would have to consider a pact.
Recalling a conversation he had had with Mr Farage, Mr Bridgen told the news website he said: “‘You’ve got a choice Nigel. You can be the kingmaker. You can help us deliver Brexit. Or you can destroy the Conservative Party. But you can’t do both at the same time. Make your mind up what you want to do.’”
Last month, Mr Farage had called for an election pact with the Conservatives to “smash” the Labour Party which had betrayed its five million Brexit-supporting voters by backing another EU referendum, and has ramped up the pressure on the establishment parties by announcing Brexit Party candidates ready to fight every seat across the country in the event of the election.
Some in the Tory Party have suggested that as well as refusing a pact, the Brexit Party should simply step aside in some constituencies to let the Conservatives take the seat, without any reciprocal arrangements. Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox called the suggestion “arrogant”, telling Sky News last week: “I think there’s something really quite offensive about having a party that says ‘OK, Brexit Party, you can stand down now, we’ve now got a Conservative Party that’s talking the good talk on Brexit’.”
“If the Brexit Party didn’t exist, Theresa May would still be running the Conservative Party… Brexit was more or less thwarted, and over. The role of the Brexit Party continues to be to argue for a clean Brexit, to continue arguing for democracy,” Ms Fox added.