Brexit leader Nigel Farage has invited British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to be courageous and to do “the right thing” and deliver a full, World Trade Organisation-rules Brexit, promising his support in a “non-aggression pact” if he did so.
In a speech where Mr Farage hailed the Brexit Party for having brought down “the worst and most duplicitous Prime Minister in British history”, the Brexit leader tore into Boris Johnson’s record but said there could be hope if Mr Johnson was willing to work in the interest of the nation.
Telling the audience of over 500 Brexit Party Parliamentary candidates that he anticipated a general election in the Autumn, Mr Johnson said Boris Johnson was “going off the rails” and said it was hard to trust the Conservative Party on Brexit. Calling the withdrawal agreement “the worst deal in history” and “unacceptable” to the British people, Mr Farage said of the deal given to Theresa May by the European Union and being kept alive by Prime Minister Johnson:
Boris, you talked about do or die, leaving the European Union on the 31st of October, and I would say to you: deliver or politically die. Any attempt to put this withdrawal agreement back, putting that to a general election either shortly before or after the 31st of October, I want to make this pledge.
The Withdrawal Agreement is not Brexit, it is a betrayal of what 17.4 million people voted for. Mr Johnson if you insist on the withdrawal agreement, we will fight you in every single seat up and down the length and breadth of the United Kingdom… Frankly, given where we are, no deal is the best deal. it is the only acceptable deal. But let’s call it what it really is, it is a clean break Brexit that would make this country an independent, sovereign, democratic nation. And that is what we in the Brexit Party want.
While Nigel Farage has been persistently critical of Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party’s handling of Brexit, he sent a message to the Tory leader that taking Britain out of the European Union or not was truly a do-or-die proposal, and one that may not be possible without a pact with the Brexit Party.
The Brexit leader told Johnson that if he would “summon up the courage” to make a full Brexit, he would put country before party and offer working together to win a general election to get Britain a pro-Brexit Parliament. Mr Farage said:
…if Boris Johnson is prepared to do the right thing to win our independence, then we are prepared to do the right thing and we would put country before party and we would do it every time.
We would be prepared in those circumstances to help him, to work with him, and who knows in the form of a non-aggression pact in the election. The truth is even if Boris went down that route the Conservative Party on their own has lost so much trust in this country, that the only way they can do it and win a workable majority to get this country free is with our help and support. We will not get a genuine Brexit without the Brexit Party being involved and we are ready to play our part in the destiny of this country.
…a Johnson government committed to doing the right thing and the Brexit Party working in tandem would be unstoppable, would deliver a big parliamentary majority, and would get this country free.
Nigel Farage has been comparatively quiet over the Summer after a sudden and massive return to the British political scene earlier in the year around the time of the Brexit betrayal, where the British government reneged on its pledge to lead the country out of the European Union by the end of March. Mr Farage subsequently led his party to victory in the April European Union elections, an achievement which had the impact of chasing Remain-backing former Prime Minister Theresa May out of office.
His comments follow those by Conservative backers in early August who called for an electoral pact with Mr Farage, fearing electoral defeat at the ballot box if Brexit candidates stood against Conservatives in a snap election where Brexit hadn’t yet been delivered. Speaking to Breitbart London, Brexiteer Tory MP Andrew Bridgen even went so far to say the Prime Minister would have to consider a pact.
Recalling a conversation he had had with Mr Farage, Mr Bridgen 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.”
While much conversation has revolved around a potential Conservative-Brexit pact, it remains the case that many Brexit supporters are former Labour voters. The Labour northern heartlands are particular targets for Mr Farage’s party, areas where working-class voters feel abandoned by by progressive metropolitan attitudes of the predominantly southern, afluent people who now lead the party.
Labour Brexiteer Kate Hoey is one to have articulated this, noting that “Labour needs to realise that many disillusioned Labour supporters now have somewhere to go to… [The Brexit Party] has discovered that there are people out there who are fed up with having been treated as if they weren’t important, that there are areas ignored and left and that neither of the mainstreams parties have been picking up on that nearly enough.”