A Conservative MP has said party loyalties will be put aside if the UK has to hold elections to the European Parliament.
Lucy Allan, the MP for Telford, raised eyebrows on Tuesday when she praised the “fantastic candidates” Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party was fielding in the May 23 poll.
Asked by HuffPost UK if she was considering voting for the party rather than the Tories at the elections, Allan said: “If EU elections are held, Leave supporting voters will want to vote for Leave supporting candidates.
“Usual party loyalties will be eclipsed by the Leave v Remain divide. It’s good to see strong candidates in the Leave camp.
“However, I sincerely hope we leave the EU before these elections are held so that we can move on and not waste time and money on unnecessary EU elections.”
Allan is not the first Tory to refuse to rule out backing the Brexit Party. Newton Abbot MP Anne Marie-Morris dropped a heavy hint earlier this month she could vote against her own party.
“I would need to see who the candidates were,” she said when asked.
“But certainly I would prefer someone on the Brexit side rather that the Remain side. In my area they are currently on the Remain side. I would like to vote for someone of a Brexit orientation.”
It came as Farage unveiled a further batch of MEP candidates on Tuesday, including Claire Fox, a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Farage said his candidates were the ones who would “revolutionise and modernise politics”.
Fox was introduced as a “free speech campaigner” and author, and said she would be “standing in solidarity” with the Leave voters whose voices “have been traduced and trashed”.
James Glancy, a Royal Marine veteran, said he was compelled to stand because he felt politicians were “undermining democracy” and “our leadership is humiliating the British public on the international stage”.
Former charity boss Matthew Patten said he believed the Brexit Party would help the country regain its “confidence in the future”.
Former nurse Christina Jordan claimed Remain-supporting MPs had been blocking Brexit and “hysterical MPs call Brexiteers Nazi appeasers”, adding “they are driving us at a cost of £100 million into European elections and want us to pat them on the back”.
Smoked salmon producer Lance Foreman was the final candidate, who said his past experience as a special adviser for former trade secretary Peter Lilley had shown him only “political obsessives” could be successful in Westminster.
He added: “To be honest, I found the transition from politics to oily fish was quite straightforward.”
Last week Farage revealed Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, had defected from the Tories to his new party.