Britons Back Respecting Referendum Result and Farage-Tory Pact for No Deal

A pro-Brexit campaigner wears the Union flag colours and holds placards as he demonstrates
TOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

A majority of Britons back the 2016 EU referendum result being respected and Brexit being delivered, whilst a plurality want the Conservatives to agree an election pact with Nigel Farage’s party to secure a strong parliamentary majority for a no deal exit.

More than half, 54 per cent, of Britons agree that the referendum result should be respected, while just 25 per cent disagreed, according to a ComRes poll reported in The Telegraph. Further, more than one-third (35 per cent) of those that voted Remain in the referendum also now want Brexit to be delivered.

Last week, the Remain Alliance was successful in passing a law that would force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ask for a Brexit delay to January 31st, 2020, if a deal is not passed in parliament next month. Related to that date, ComRes asked Britons whether they agreed that Brexit should be delayed, with almost half (49 per cent) disagreeing while only 29 per cent said it should be delayed.

Fifty per cent also agreed that it was “fundamentally undemocratic” for some MPs to prevent the UK leaving the EU in light of Prime Minister Johnson’s pledge to deliver Brexit by October 31st, with or without a deal, with 43 per cent agreeing with a separate statement that if the EU makes no concessions on the withdrawal treaty that the UK should leave by that date in a clean break.

In response to the statement, “Boris Johnson should make a pact with the Brexit Party to try to get enough MPs to secure a parliamentary majority for a no deal Brexit,” 36 per cent agreed, compared to 34 per cent who disagreed. Broken down by party affiliation, 89 per cent of Brexit Party supporters and 69 per cent of those who intend to vote Conservative agreed.

Mr Farage has been reaching out to Mr Johnson to discuss a ‘non-aggression’ tactical election pact, where each of their respective parties would agree to not field candidates in certain constituencies should it split the Brexit-supporting vote. The Brexit Party leader has already agreed to not challenge seats belonging to Tory Brexiteer “Spartans”, but according to reports, he upped that offer by asking the Tories for free run of 80 to 90 constituencies in exchange for not fielding candidates in the Conservatives’ target seats or against sitting Conservative MPs.

The offer has been relayed to the prime minister by Tory MPs after talks had reportedly opened up between the two parties. A source close the the Brexit Party leader told The Sun: “Nigel has had some conversations with people who are very close to Boris, not MPs or ministers to keep them discreet. They’re more to scope out whether he’s serious about a deal than actual negotiations, and the Tories appreciate he is. It is a beginning.”

“It’s very simple, it’s all about the numbers. Boris knows he cannot win a majority without our help,” they added.

Mr Farage is said to be focusing on seats in the Midlands, North East, and Wales — the working-class, Brexit-supporting, but Labour-voting heartlands which have been let down by their traditional party home when Jeremy Corbyn threw Labour’s support behind a second referendum and Remain, despite pledging in his 2017 manifesto to respect the result.

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