As Snap Election Looms, Nigel Farage Throws Boris Johnson a Lifeline with a Catch

COLCHESTER, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 02: Leader of the Brexit Party Nigel Farage addresses part
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Oliver JJ Lane

While polling suggests a General Election without Brexit having been delivered would be a fatal blow to the Conservatives, the Brexit Party’s Nigel Farage has said he would give Boris Johnson a clean run at victory on the condition he scrapped Theresa May’s hated Brexit deal.

The prime minister has repeatedly said he would take the country out of the European Union on October 31st “do or die” — meaning with or without a negotiated deal with the European Union — but has made abundantly clear his preferred route is to agree on a deal with Brussels.

This is unacceptable to many Brexiteers, who point out the flaws of the deal that were present when Mr Johnson himself voted against it twice in early 2019 remain in place, and that to sign the nation up to a new European treaty resembles a betrayal of the spirit of the Brexit vote.

Perhaps the greatest electoral threat to Boris Johnson now is not the official opposition Labour Party — which has drifted to a position of explicitly opposing the result of the 2016 referendum where the British people voted to leave the European Union — but is Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. The new political force, which earlier this year went from a standing start to winning the European Parliament elections, is now in a position to stand a candidate in every constituency in the country.

The number of Conservative MPs elected in a snap election could be greatly reduced if all of those Brexit candidates stand, yet party leader Nigel Farage has repeatedly said he would tell his people to stand down if Prime Minister Boris Johnson was willing to strike a deal.

Britain’s The Times newspaper reports his remarks, which echo others made previously on a potential truce, when Farage said the price of an agreement was Prime Minister Johnson killing Theresa May’s deal for good. He told the paper: “If Boris Johnson thinks that the withdrawal agreement can stand then we don’t. At the moment he is suggesting no change at all to the withdrawal agreement other than the Irish backstop. This is not acceptable.”

Further, he is reported to have said: “Do I think it is acceptable that a general election could be held on the basis that he goes back to Brussels to get the withdrawal agreement? Well I absolutely don’t. Given there is less than 60 days to go to that right now, no-deal is the best deal.”

Breitbart London reported last week when Mr Farage offered Boris an election deal, noting that if he stood against the Conservatives they would likely be annihilated at the polls but remarking if the prime minister were willing to be brave and do “the right thing” by scrapping Theresa May’s deal and delivering a full Brexit, he would stand fully behind him.

Mr Farage said such an alliance would be “unstoppable” at the polls, with Brexit MPs challenging Labour in Brexit-voting working-class seats, and giving the Conservatives a free run in traditional Tory seats elsewhere. He said:

…if Boris Johnson is prepared to do the right thing to win our independence, then we are prepared to do the right thing and we would put country before party and we would do it every time.

We would be prepared in those circumstances to help him, to work with him, and who knows in the form of a non-aggression pact in the election. The truth is even if Boris went down that route the Conservative Party on their own has lost so much trust in this country, that the only way they can do it and win a workable majority to get this country free is with our help and support. We will not get a genuine Brexit without the Brexit Party being involved and we are ready to play our part in the destiny of this country.

…a Johnson government committed to doing the right thing and the Brexit Party working in tandem would be unstoppable, would deliver a big parliamentary majority, and would get this country free.

Speaking in early August, Mr Farage illustrated the electoral calculations that would make such an alliance valuable, pointing to the Peterborough and Brecon by-elections, where Brexit and Tory candidates standing against each other in both cases split the vote, allowing left-liberal candidates to win the seats.

Recent polling has shown that if Mr Johnson attempted to delay Brexit again, his party would gain even fewer votes in a General Election than Mr Farage’s Brexit Party.

The possibility of a snap election is now a heightened concern. Mr Johnson is reported to have threatened Parliament with a snap election before Brexit day if anti-Brexit rebels attempt to derail the Brexit process, as they are expected to attempt to do Tuesday evening.

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