Nigel Farage has sensationally backed down on his threat to stand Brexit Party general election candidates in every constituency across Britain, announcing the party will not fight the 317 seats won by Tories in 2017.
The move, which he termed a “unilateral Leave alliance”, represents a massive boost for Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in the battle for the 12 December general election, removing the danger that they might lose seats by splitting the pro-Brexit vote.
Farage was accused of “bottling it” by a leading Labour supporter of continued EU membership, who called on all Remain supporters to “co-operate” in the coming election.
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The Brexit Party leader said he had decided overnight that fighting all 632 seats in England, Scotland and Wales was likely to lead to large numbers of gains by Remain-backing parties including the Liberal Democrats and a second EU referendum.
In recent weeks, Mr Farage has repeatedly denounced Mr Johnson’s withdrawal agreement with Brussels, insisting it did not deliver Brexit and would not allow the UK to “take back control”.
But he has come under intense pressure not to split the Leave vote, with former ally Arron Banks setting up a tactical voting website urging Brexit supporters in most cases to vote not for Mr Farage’s party but for the Tories.
In a speech in Hartlepool, Mr Farage said he was concerned that “by far the most likely outcome” of fighting the Tories in every seat would be to deliver another hung parliament.
And he said he had been reassured by “a very clear change of direction” by Mr Johnson, who had declared that he would negotiate a “super Canada-plus” free trade agreement with the EU and would rule out any extension of talks on future relations beyond the end of 2020.
“That I think is a significant step in the right direction,” said Mr Farage. “So last night I weighed up Boris’s promises – and is he going to stick to them – against the threat, particularly in the south and south-west, that we let in a lot of Remainer Liberal Democrat MPs.
“I waited until last night to decide. The Brexit Party will not contest the 317 seats that Conservatives won at the last election. What we will do is concentrate our total effort on all the seats held by the Labour Party … and we will also take on the rest of the Remainer parties. We will stand up and we will fight them all.”
Remain-backing Labour MP David Lammy responded: “Nigel Farage bottling it by standing down in Tory seats shows how vital it is for Remainers to co-operate.
“We cannot allow this hard-right alliance between Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage – dancing to the tune of Donald Trump – to permanently wreck our country.”
