Brexit Party election candidates have been urged by one of their own MEPs to strike local election deals with Tories, despite Nigel Farage’s refusal to stand aside for Boris Johnson.
Farage on Monday pulled Brexit Party candidates out of the 317 seats won by the Tories in 2017 to avoid splitting the Leave vote and endangering Britain’s exit from the EU.
But on Thursday he again resisted pressure to go further by axing Brexit Party candidates from Labour-held Tory target seats to try and ensure a pro-Leave majority in parliament.
The Brexit Party leader even claimed that his candidates were on the receiving end of “aggressive intimidation” to withdraw from seats.
But ahead of the 4pm Thursday deadline for the nomination of candidates, Brexit Party MEP Lance Forman called for those standing in his party to meet with Tory counterparts and do deals to ensure a Leave-supporter has the best shot at winning in their area, even though both will be on the ballot paper.
“At this late hour I call upon all Conservatives and Brexit Party PPCs (prospective parliamentary candidates) in Leave voting constituencies to meet and decide who will be the most popular and allow the weaker one to stand aside,” the London MEP said.
“If the national parties can’t agree, let’s do this locally for Brexit’s sake.”
One high-profile candidate, Rupert Lowe, followed Forman’s advice and stood down in Dudley North one minute before the nominations deadline closed.
The former Southampton FC chairman said he could not risk allowing “Corbyn’s Momentum candidate” for Labour win the seat.
Farage meanwhile claimed Johnson’s chief of staff Sir Eddie Lister was offering jobs to Brexit Party candidates in return for them standing down, although it was strongly denied by Downing Street.
The Brexit Party leader has been accused of splitting the Leave vote and risking letting in a Labour-led government which would postpone Britain’s withdrawal from the EU pending a second referendum.
But earlier he told voters in Hull on Thursday: “We are going to fight Labour in every seat in this country, be in no doubt.”
He criticised the Tories’ “refusal on their part to give an inch” after his “unilateral Leave alliance” offer.
And asked whether he would consider a last-minute withdrawal of candidates, Farage said: “No, we’re not, although what we’re seeing is the most incredible, aggressive intimidation of our candidates.
“Here we are, in a free and fair democracy.
“Putting ourselves up for public office is a right, and yet there are people who are effectively being denied that right because they are being intimidated, and told they mustn’t stand because if they do the next four weeks will be hell. It’s disgraceful.”
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Farage also admitted that he doubts that he will vote in the upcoming election because there is no Brexit Party candidate in his Kent constituency because he ordered them to stand down.
“I doubt I’ll vote. I very much doubt I’ll vote,” he said.
On the prospect of voting for the Tories, he said: “It’s this very narrow party interest, that’s all they care about.”
When asked whether he had ever not voted before, he said: “I did spoil a paper in 1992. I couldn’t vote for John Major, I couldn’t do it.
“My last Conservative vote was 1987.”