A “new patriotic alliance” which will see Brexit leaders Nigel Farage and Richard Tice with the Reform party back Laurence Fox’s Reclaim party candidacy against Sadiq Khan has been announced.
The electoral pact which will see the Reform — previously known as the Brexit Party — back Laurence Fox’s London mayoral candidacy in return for Fox backing the Reform Party’s London Assembly candidates in May’s votes was announced in London’s Hyde Park on Thursday morning.
The announcement came just hours after Breitbart London’s exclusive interview with Mr Fox where he summarised his policy platform as: “Don’t tell me what to do. Fuck off.”
Smoking a hand-rolled cigarette and wearing a cravat, Fox spoke to a group of supporters and journalists in the park and remarked: “It is a great honour for me to announce an electoral pact for May between the Reform and Reclaim parties. It is Your London, Reclaim it and Reform it.”
Richard Tice, who was once described as Nigel Farage’s ‘CEO’ of the Brexit Party and who now leads its successor Reform UK after Mr Farage stepped back from frontline politics, joked that the alliance was like a The Fox and Tice pub — a riff on traditional English bar names — free of coronavirus rules.
He said on Thursday morning: “It is wonderful to have this pact with Laurence. The word ‘freedom’ is so important, it is so precious and yet so vulnerable… we have taken it for granted. And the truth is, Londoners, we have lost so many of our freedoms, and we want them back. Freedom from the tyranny of lockdown, free from the musty masks that harm our children.
“Free to open our businesses, restaurants, pubs… We want our freedoms back from the knife crime scourge that has surged under Sadiq. We are here in Hyde Park, we want to be free to have a party here… free to have a hug.
“We have lost these freedoms and we want them back, and that is why this pact is so important… together, we can get our freedoms back.”
Brexit leader Nigel Farage threw his weight behind the alliance in a press release seen by Breitbart London:
It feels highly appropriate that on the eve of St George’s Day, a new patriotic alliance between Reform UK and the Reclaim Party is being announced.
As the aims and objectives of the two men are so similar, this is the grown-up thing to do and I support it.
With the big Brexit battle now over, the fight is about what kind of country people want to live in: a free nation or a semi-authoritarian regime? This debate needs to happen very quickly. I wish Laurence Fox and Richard Tice all the very best.
It is not, perhaps, a great surprise that the ex-Brexit Party men have thrown their weight behind Fox. Although the Brexit Party is fielding candidates for the London Assembly — the city-wide body that runs committees and is meant to hold the Mayor to account — they do not have a mayoral candidate of their own. Further, Breitbart London understands Richard Tice has been seen at Reclaim events in recent weeks and was even seen enjoying a refreshing bottle of milk outside Parliament with Mr Fox.
Former Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Martin Daubney has been advising Fox and he, as well as fellow ex-Brexit Party MEP Dr David Bull, were present with Fox and Tice on Thursday morning.
Beyond standing against mask mandates and so-called vaccine passports, Fox’s mayoral manifesto includes several policies to jump-start life in the capital city after over a year of on-off lockdowns, dealing with the city’s housing crisis, and fighting left-wing culture wars. Fox and Tice said the Conservative Party had failed to “properly stand up to far-left movements such as Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter”.
The “new patriotic alliance” also took aim at the rise in crime and refocusing of the police away from traditional duties that has taken place under Mayor Khan. Mr Tice said in a statement seen by Breitbart London marking the electoral pact that: “The last 5 years under a Labour Mayor has seen the introduction of politicised policing, and a subsequent skyrocket in violent crime across the capital. Laurence Fox and Reform UK will put an end to the Mayor’s crimewave by reintroducing common sense policing and ensuring that police officers get back to what they do best, protecting the people.”
Breitbart London broadcast a new interview with Fox earlier on Thursday morning, where he discussed his first principles with James Delingpole, dismissing the virtue-spiral surrounding mask-wearing and government intrusion in private thoughts and opinions. Watch the video here.