Nigel Farage has said that his Brexit Party will “hurt the Labour Party in the most extraordinary way” in the December 12th General Election.
Mr Farage made the comments during an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Monday. He said in response to claims that the Brexit Party would take votes from the Brexit-backing Conservatives: “The UKIP vote took more votes from Labour than it did from the Conservatives. [David] Cameron wouldn’t have even got a majority without UKIP.
“We are going to hurt the Labour Party in the most extraordinary way. We’ll do it in South Wales, we’ll do it in the Midlands, we’ll do it in the North of England.
“Those Labour voters have been completely betrayed by the Labour Party. They are my number one target. I got those votes in 2015, I’ll do it again.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn abandoned some five million Labour Leavers in the heartlands when he backed a second referendum in July, with a study pointing to more Labour Leavers turning to the Brexit Party than the Tories.
Mr Farage said in comments reported by The Telegraph that his party has the best chance to pick up those disaffected left-wing voters. He said: “Labour seats offer us our best opportunity.”
“When you go out to these Labour constituencies that voted leave and are now represented by Remain MPs there is more anger there about the lack of representation than in any other part of the country,” he added.
Farage comments come as Prime Minister Boris Johnson challenged Corbyn to “come clean” on his Brexit policy.
In a letter to the Opposition Leader, the Conservative Party leader said: “Your current position seems to be that you want to go back to square one. You want to throw out the great new deal we have reached with our European friends, and instead negotiate a whole new treaty from scratch. Even assuming the EU agrees to go back to the very beginning, this will take months and possibly years to do — under your proposals, 2020 will be lost to more dither and delay over Brexit. Voters also have the right to know: what would your supposed Brexit ‘deal’ actually back control of?
“For months you have refused to say what sort of ‘deal’ you want with the EU. Now the time has come for you to come clean, and explain what your plan really is.”
Mr Corbyn has said that within six months of becoming prime minister, he would renegotiate a treaty with the EU that would leave the UK in close alignment with the Single Market and Customs Union — leaving the EU in name only. He would then hold a second referendum with that super-soft Brexit option against Remain on the ballot paper and would campaign to remain in the EU.
During press questions at a Labour event on Tuesday, Mr Corbyn would not rule out abandoning his pledge of a second referendum to embrace cancelling Brexit entirely to gain support from the Liberal Democrats in the event of a hung parliament, saying instead that Labour was “campaigning to win”.
Last night, Mr Farage unveiled hundreds of candidates at a rally in London, saying that Johnson’s exit treaty “is not Brexit. It is a sell-out.”
“There will be no Brexit without the Brexit Party,” he said, adding: “Of that, I am certain.”
The latest voting intention poll from YouGov revealed a bounce for the Brexit Party at 11 per cent, rising four per cent. The Tories remain in first with 38 per cent, down one per cent, with Labour 13 points behind on 25 per cent, down two per cent.
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