Nigel Farage has thrown his political weight behind Attorney General Suella Braverman in the contest to replace Boris Johnson as the next leader of the Conservative party and thereby the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for her hardline stance on delivering Brexit.
Suella Braverman, 42, who lead the hardcore Brexiteer European Research Group of MPs from 2017 to 2018, has won the support of Nigel “Mr Brexit” Farage after she was the only candidate to vow to remove the UK from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in order to finally “take back control” of the nation’s borders.
Speaking on Wednesday evening following the first round of voting in the leadership contest, in which Braverman secured 32 votes from her fellow MPs — just barely over the threshold of the 30 vote bar — Nigel Farage said that she is “the only one actually saying what needs to be done.”
“At the moment Braverman the only one actually prepared to stand up and say what needs to be done. Now it could be that her pressure will get others to change their view overnight,” he said in reference to her position on the ECHR, which the UK is currently still bound by despite leaving the European Union is still bound by as it is technically outside of the EU, though it shares the same anthem, flag, and is based in the same “European Quarter’ campus in Strasbourg, France.
Due to the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson failing to remove Britain from the pan-European court, the ECHR was able to block a deportation flight of illegal migrants to an asylum processing centre in Rwanda last month.
Braverman has also distinguished herself from other candidates by calling for a full review of all EU-influenced laws still on the books in Britain.
Speaking for herself on Thursday afternoon, Braverman told British broadcaster Sky News that: “I believe I’m the only authentic Brexiteer to continue the Brexit promises contained in our 2019 manifesto, to deliver on our pledges and importantly I’m the only candidate standing today who is honest about the solution to fixing illegal migration, namely the small boats crossing the channel.”
Mr Farage warned that if Braverman is knocked out of the voting and the likes of former Lib-Dem Remainer Liz Truss, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, or Theresa May’s former Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt then the government will not only fail to deliver a “proper Brexit” but it could risk seeing the Conservatives chucked out of office, opening the door for a left-wing, anti-Brexit coalition.
“That’s just how dire and how bad this is,” Mr Farage said. “We’re headed towards a Liberal Democrat-Labour coalition unless the Conservatives recognise we need a new kind of politics. ‘Change politics for good’ was the motto of the Brexit party, it was right then and it’s right now.”
There have been some rumours that there could be a coalition between Braverman, Liz Truss, and the leading right-wing candidate Kemi Badenoch to take down current frontrunners Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak. Braverman ally Steve Baker MP, however, has downplayed the idea of any deal being struck.
Meanwhile, the leadership contest saw another central figure of the Brexit movement, Lord David Frost, make an intervention. The government’s former Brexit negotiator said on Thursday morning — ahead of the second round of voting — that he has “grave reservations” about Penny Mordaunt becoming Prime Minister.
Mordaunt received the second most votes behind Sunak, with 67 MPs throwing their support behind her, leading to a wave of hype from the mainstream media apparatus in Britain, who attempted to cast her as the leading candidate to beat Sunak.
However, Mordaunt has received major pushback for her leftist stance on gender, that “transgender women are women and trans men are men”, and has now seen her former boss take aim at her candidacy.
In an interview with TalkTV, Lord David Frost said: “To be honest, I’m quite surprised she is where she is in this race. She was my deputy – notionally more than really – in the Brexit talks last year.
“I’m sorry to say this, she did not master the necessary detail in the negotiations last year. She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary and I’m afraid she wasn’t fully accountable or always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was.
“I’m afraid this became such a problem that after 6 months I had to ask the PM to move her on and find somebody else to support me… From the basis of what I saw, I would have grave reservations.”
Lord Frost has also reportedly endorsed Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and will reportedly call on Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman to fall in line and support the former Liberal Democrat as the next Conservative leader.
The results of the second round of voting will be announced on Thursday at 3 pm after which the remaining candidates will appear on a televised debate on Friday evening, and spend the weekend campaigning at a series of hustings before another round of voting takes place on Monday.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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