Brexit boss Nigel Farage said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had opted for “suicide over total obliteration” by calling a Summer election, predicting that the dire state the Tory party finds itself in would only get worse as more time passes.
Farage said that while the election will be held on the same day which America celebrated its independence, the July 4th election will serve as “Deliverance Day” for Britain from “a bunch of charlatans who call themselves Conservatives but govern like big-state liberals”.
The Brexiteer also mocked the manner in which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the general election, from a podium outside of Downing Street in the rain while being drowned out by a protester’s loudspeaker blasting Tony Blair’s Labour Party 1997 election theme tune Things Can Only Get Better.
“The lack of professionalism is unbelievable,” Farage remarked. “To stand there getting soaked in the rain, to read from the notes like a robot, without passion, without belief, without vim, without vigor sums up 14 years of Conservatism and shows why they are going to get wiped in this election.”
The veteran populist campaigner said that the decision by the prime minister to call for a July election — rather than holding off until the Autumn or Winter as was previously assumed — showed that Sunak chose “suicide over total obliteration”.
“As the months go by, it will get worse and worse,” Farage said, predicting that “no planes” will go to Rwanda, referencing the government’s chief aim to stem the boat migrant crisis in the English Channel which hopes to deter crossings by removing illegals to the East African nation.
While Farage said that while he is not looking forward to a government run by the left-wing Labour Party of Sir Keir Starmer — which currently holds a commanding double-digit lead in the polls over the Tories — he said that the Conservatives deserve to lose.
“This lot, having betrayed Brexit, having betrayed everything I gave them in 2019, all the help I gave them back five years ago, deserve everything that is coming to them.”
In 2019, Farage’s Brexit Party agreed to an election pact with Boris Johnson’s Conservatives to stand down in key constituencies to ensure a majority to finally “get Brexit done” and finally withdraw the UK from the European Union after years of dithering and delays from Theresa May’s government.
The Brexit Party, now rebranded as Reform UK, is posing a serious challenge to the Tories, with leader Richard Tice refusing to enter into another pact to save Sunak from the Labour Party and vowing to put forward candidates in every race in England, Scotland, and Wales.
A recent survey from JL Partners found that Reform has 10 per cent support in the polls, with most of that support being siphoned away from the Conservatives as voters became disaffected with the government’s refusal to deliver on the promises of Brexit, most importantly reducing immigration.
The same survey found that were Mr Farage to join the campaign for Reform, the populist party’s support would instantly increase to 16 per cent. The Brexit leader has so far refused to say whether he intends to throw his hat in the ring, however, he said in January that he was “seriously” considering it after polling suggested he could secure a seat in Parliament in Clacton on the Reform ticket.