Brexit leader Nigel Farage has suggested an alliance between former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Reform Party to take on the corporatist-globalist Conservative Party and protect the legacy of Brexit from the leftist Labour Party.
Nigel Farage said that he does not believe that Boris Johnson has “any future” with the Conservative Party following his cantankerous and unceremonious resignation from Parliament this week amid the possibility of being censured for breaching the lockdown rules that his government imposed upon the public.
However, opening the door to yet another alliance, Mr Farage said that there is a road open to Boris to make a political comeback “if he wants to” and — perhaps more crucially — if Johnson is willing to backtrack on the neo-liberal globalist positions he embraced during his time in Number 10.
Farage said that given the Conservative Party’s transformation into a “full-on social democrat party”, there is currently a “very big opening in British politics” to the right of the Tories for a third party, such as the Reform Party — formerly the Brexit Party — which Farage founded. The seasoned political campaigner voiced his idea that the gap between establishment parties and people is now wider than it was a decade ago when he turned politics upside down as UKIP leader.
“I disagree with Boris Johnson fundamentally on many of his Metro liberal views but if anybody can turn on a sixpence and say they now believe in something completely different it’s Boris Johnson,” he said on GB News. “The important thing to remember is this on the biggest issue of our age… Brexit that Boris actually was on the same side as myself.”
Mr Farage said in light of the likelihood of the left-wing Labour Party winning the next general election given the shambles the Tories find themselves, the politician turned tv presenter warned that his and Johnson’s services might be required to preserve the “legacy of Brexit”.
While supporters of Johnson often point to his proven ability to win at the ballot box, the most recent instance of this — the 2019 general election — came with the support of Nigel Farage, with the Brexiteer declaring an election pact with Johnson to stand down his forces in key seats in order to allow Boris and the Conservatives to secure a large majority to deliver Brexit after years of dithering under Theresa May.
Though Johnson did deliver on Brexit — Northern Ireland notwithstanding — his government ultimately proved a disappointment in terms of delivering upon the promises of the leave campaign, with the Conservatives overseeing record-high immigration, the highest tax burden since the Second World War, and government spending going through the roof during and after the imposition of draconian lockdown measures.
Despite all of this Johnson remains personally popular for a Conservative and remains one of the few politicians in the country who can command news coverage, making the idea of an alliance a tempting prospect for Farage, who has consistently said that were he to return to frontline politics, he would need strong allies in order to break through the roadblock that first-past-the-post voting system represents to outside parties.
Interestingly, the leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer has suggested that if elected, a Labour government would seek to radically transform the way British elections are held, including instituting a proportional voting system that could allow for a third party Reform to actually have meaningful representation in parliament.