Such a pact could help the Tories cling on to seats like Chipping Barnet.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has said he may consider not standing candidates against Hard Brexit Tories who are battling with Remain parties.
Farage told Politico that, if Johnson campaigns for a “clean break Brexit”, then “with our support, working together he would be unstoppable, given the constituency cuts in the country, he would win a very large majority and he would be a hero”.
He said he would not be looking for anything in return and added: “It is more of a non-aggression pact I have suggested, there are areas in the country where we would be the challengers to Labour, where the Conservatives are not going to get elected.”
“Equally there are other areas of the country where the Conservatives could win seats that we can’t, and with my endorsement that would help them significantly in those seats.”
When asked if he would stand a candidate against Iain Duncan Smith, who has a small majority and faces a challenge from Labour for his seat, he said he would because Smith voted for Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
When asked if that meant he would not stand candidates against MPs who didn’t vote for May’s deal, Farage said: “There is a much more favorable conversation to be had about them.”
Farage said that he had not spoken to anyone senior in the Conservative Party about this proposal.
The Hard Brexit MPs who didn’t vote for May’s Brexit deal and are in marginal seats are:
- Theresa Villiers in Chipping Barnet (400 majority over Labour)
- Andrea Jenkyns in Morely and Outwood (2,000 majority over Labour)
- David Jones in Clwyd West (3,000 majority over Labour)
- Lee Rowley in Derbyshire North East (3,000 majority over Labour)
- James Duddridge in Rochford and Southend East (5,500 majority over Labour)
- Craig Mckinlay in Thanet South (6,000 majority over Labour)
- Steve Baker in Wycombe (6,000 majority over Labour)
- Marcus Fysh in Yeovil (15,000 majority over Lib Dems)
There have been similar calls for a ‘Remain Alliance’ and the Greens and Plaid Cymru did not run against the Liberal Democrats in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election – perhaps helping them win.
However, Labour has said it will run in all seats and there is internal division about a ‘Remain Alliance’ in the Green Party of England and Wales.
Of the 38 three-way marginal seats, where an alliance could be most helpful, 30 are in Scotland.
However, the Liberal Democrats have said they will not work with the Scottish National Party so there is no prospect of a ‘Remain Alliance’ in Scotland.
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2 Responses to “Farage proposes “non-aggression pact” with Hard Brexit Tories”
Tom Sacold
We need a socialist Brexit to get us out of the neo-liberal EU capitalist club.
New Labour Blairites are trying to keep us tied to the capitalist Single Market in the interests of the multinational corporations that dominate EU economic policy to the determent of the workers.
Alasdair Macdonald
You are not going to get a ‘socialist Brexit’. You are going to get a neo-liberal, curtailment of rights and regulations Brexit which is what the funders of Brexit have worked for for decades.