‘Hold My Jacket’: Farage Ready for ‘Punch up’ if Johnson Treats Brexit Party as Enemy

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - JUNE 30: Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage addresses supporters from
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Nigel Farage has said that he is ready for a “punch up” with the prime minister if Boris Johnson treats the Brexit Party as an “enemy”, warning he will need a political alliance in the event of a General Election.

Speaking to Sky News Australia, Mr Farage said that while he is confident that Brexit will happen, he is sceptical it will happen, as Johnson has pledged, on October 31st.

“He has said all the same things Theresa May said about March the 29th: 108 times she told us we were leaving on March 29th and of course we didn’t. There is more sincerity about Brexit with Boris than there was from May, but I’ll wait and see. Given the current make-up of parliament how will he be able to deliver it?” he said.

He added that he was not surprised that parliament voted for an amendment to stop the full prorogation of parliament — which Johnson is said to be considering in order to stop Europhile MPs blocking Brexit on Halloween — remarking that while the country voted to leave, “Parliament simply doesn’t accept the result”.

“Boris faces the most enormous challenge,” Mr Farage continued, saying that the parliamentary arithmetic — with the lower house dominated by Remainers — represents an obstruction to delivering a clean Brexit.

The alternative, Mr Farage said, was a “big, bold General Election”, but that since the arrival of the Brexit Party, which came first in May’s European Parliament election, “the only way Boris could win that [General] Election is if he comes to some kind of accommodation with me and with the Brexit Party”.

On Johnson having ruled out a deal with the Brexit Party on parliamentary seats, Mr Farage said: “I’ve said all the way through this: ‘If Boris wants to have a fight with me then someone hold my jacket.’ that’s fine. I’ll have a punch-up with him any day you like. But if he does that, if he chooses to see me as a political enemy, he can’t win. So it’s up to him.”

Tory Brexiteer Andrew Bridgen made a similar assessment last month, saying that Johnson would have to make an agreement with “kingmaker” Farage in the event of a snap election.

Asked about the future of the Brexit Party should Johnson deliver Brexit as promised, Farage said: “I used to think for years getting Brexit was all we needed. Now, I realise it’s just the beginning of what is needed.

“What we need is a political revolution in this country. Our institutions, our election methods, the House of Lords are unfit for purpose… For this country to be fit for the 21st century in a global economy, we need radical change in this country and I’m going to try my best to deliver it.”

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