Boris Johnson is serious about delivering Brexit but he’ll probably only be able to do this by calling an early General Election in October and by reaching an accommodation with The Brexit Party’s leader Nigel Farage.
So says Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News.
Bridgen is a leading member of the European Research Group (ERG), the hardcore of Brexiteers — aka the Spartans — who mostly refused to accede to Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement because it didn’t deliver meaningful Brexit.
The fact that Boris has got such people onside augurs well for his almost inevitable anointment as Britain’s next prime minister. In return for the support of the ERG, Boris has made personal commitments to delivering full, hard, swift Brexit.
Bridgen said:
When I spoke to Boris before I committed to him… and Boris said: ‘When it comes to the crunch can I rely on you?’ And I said: ‘The question is, Boris, when it comes to the crunch can I rely on you?’ And he persuaded me that I could.”
I said, ‘Boris, the country, the party is in a dire situation. If we’re really lucky and we play all the cards right and we get the right prime minister in there might be a second chance with the electorate. But there’ll certainly be no third chance because we are drinking in the last chance saloon of credibility with the general population and we can’t afford any more mistakes.
So no more broken promises. We’ve got to leave on 31st October. And the Brexit Party are a protest group — it’s what Mr Farage likes to do. I’ve met him many times. I like him. And when he asked me to defect to the Brexit Party a month or so ago he said, ‘We’re going to deliver on the Conservative Party’s manifesto promises’ and I couldn’t disagree with him. But I’m stopping here to fight for the heart and the soul of the Conservative Party. I believe that we can reinvigorate it and that we can move back to our natural place in government.
But when we come out of all this I don’t want to go back to the Conservative government we’ve had before. I want a proper Conservative government delivering proper conservative promises.
This probably won’t be possible, though, without another General Election. Parliament is so Remain-dominated, Bridgen believes, that it will be impossible to push through a No Deal Brexit.
To get out I think we’re probably going to have a General Election. And that will probably be in the middle of October. And can you imagine: ‘Vote Conservative and we’ll be out of the EU in two weeks’ time.’
But this will probably need the support of Nigel Farage:
To facilitate that we’ll have to come to an agreement with Mr Farage and The Brexit Party. I think he’s a pragmatist. I told him: ‘You’ve got a choice Nigel. You can be the kingmaker. You can help us deliver Brexit. Or you can destroy the Conservative Party. But you can’t do both at the same time. Make your mind up what you want to do.’
Knowing Nigel as I do I’d really rather have him inside peeing out than outside peeing in.
We live in extraordinary times…