Brexit Party Accepts Applications from Would-Be Members of Parliament: Politicians Need Not Apply

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Oliver JJ Lane

Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party has started accepting applications for would-be parliamentary candidates to stand in the next Westminster election, but the profile for the ideal entrant makes clear one particular demographic is less welcome.

In an email sent to the party’s 90,000 paying supporters, the Brexit Party invited followers to consider becoming a parliamentary candidate, listing the qualities the party considered positives for selection. Notably, the invitation made clear they were looking for candidates who did not have political experience, but who had worked and served in the real world instead.

Would-be applicants were told: “We are keen to hear from anyone with a strong record of achievement who can bring outside experience to politics.

“In particular we are looking for commercial or social entrepreneurs who have made a difference in their professional or civic lives.”

Earlier this week, Mr Farage said of the decision to start recruiting Parliamentary candidates: “We are as of today recruiting candidates to fight the next general election, We want 650 men and women and we want people with real-world experience – people who either in civilian or business life have got some achievements under their belt.

“I anticipate thousands of people coming forward but I feel the confidence that, if there was a [general election] that took place any time from September onward, we would be ready to fight it.”

The call conforms to candidates already selected by the Brexit Party for the forthcoming European elections, and in particular next month’s Peterborough by-election, a vote triggered after electors in the city served the first successful recall petition to a sitting Member of Parliament in British history.

Fiona Onasanya, was jailed for perverting the course of justice and gained subsequent further notoriety for helping a piece of anti-Brexit legislation to pass through Parliament by one vote while out from prison on an electronic tag.

The Brexit Party announced on Thursday local entrepreneur Mike Greene, a businessman who starred in British television show Secret Millionaire — where wealthy individuals go incognito to do good in the community — as their candidate to fight for the Peterborough seat.

Although Greene has worked and volunteered locally to improve school standards and to get the city its own university — a cause that appears to be central to his electoral campaign — at his launch event Greene revealed that before a recent Brexit Party event, he had never been to a political rally before.

Although legally the next UK general election should not take place until 2022, British politics remains volatile and vetting 650 candidates to stand for a vote takes time. The failure to select candidates in a timely fashion was illustrated just this week by new globalist-left political party Change UK (CUK), which attempted to form a remain-alliance with other parties for the forthcoming Peterborough by-election.

Ultimately the attempt failed, and the party is now not standing a candidate in the election at all.

Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook

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