Tories lined up to heap praise on Nigel Farage after he stood down hundreds of Brexit Party candidates to help Boris Johnson clinch general election victory.
Farage announced on Monday he would back a “Leave alliance” and that 317 would-be MPs will step aside to give the Conservatives a boost at the ballot box on December 12.
The Brexit Party will still challenge Labour in the North and Midlands, but Farage said the move was calculated to inflict maximum damage on the Lib Dems, whose policy is to revoke Article 50.
Farage said he was satisfied that Johnson was seeking a Canada-style free trade deal with the EU and would not extend the transition beyond 2020.
The move vastly increases the chance of a pro-Brexit majority emerging after the election and several Tories were quick to love-bomb Farage on social media.
Johnson insisted he had “absolutely not” called the ex-Ukip leader to agree a deal, but said in a tweet “we welcome Nigel Farage’s recognition that another gridlocked parliament is the greatest threat to getting Brexit done”.
Walsall North Tory candidate Eddie Hughes thanked Farage and sent him “best wishes” from the pro-Leave constituency, where he would have faced a fight from Farage.
Tory stalwart Sir John Redwood said Farage had made a “good call” while Tim Montgomerie, formerly chief of staff to ex-Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, described Farage had “proved himself - first and foremost - a patriot”.
Announcing the news, Farage, who faces further pressure to stand down other candidates, told a press conference: “Last night I weighed up Boris’ promises and is he going to stick to them against the threat particularly in the South and the South West that we let in a lot of Remainer Liberal Democrat MPs.”
Duncan Smith himself described Farage’s announcement as a “good thing” .
He told BBC Radio 4’s the World at One programme: “Well I would hope that this is the start of the Brexit Party recognising that even standing across the board in those sort of seats will also end up helping those Labour incumbents who are sitting there worrying at the moment about the fact that they have a very, very large Leave vote, and if that is split, then that means they might just sneak through, which could be the difference between us winning a majority and only becoming the majority party and of course winning a majority is critical, if you want to deliver Brexit and Boris to stay.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the news was criticised by Labour and the Lib Dems.