Nigel Farage will not stand to be an MP in the December general election.
The Brexit Party leader revealed he would not fight for a parliamentary seat, insisting it he would better serve his movement’s aims by “traversing the length and breadth” of the country.
Farage, who has failed in seven attempts to get elected as an MP, told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “I’ve thought very hard about this, how do I serve the cause of Brexit best? Because that’s what I’m doing this for, not for a career because I don’t want to be in politics for the rest of my life.
“Do I find a seat, try to get myself into parliament or do I serve the cause better traversing the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, supporting 600 candidates, and I’ve decided that the latter course is the right one.
“It’s very difficult to do but it’s very difficult to be the constituency every day and at the same time be out across the United Kingdom.”
Sign up now to get The Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing, by email.
Various opinion polls this weekend have registered waning support for the Brexit Party, with YouGov and Opinium putting Farage’s outfit in single figures.
Farage has already offered to stand down Brexit Party candidates across the country if Boris Johnson drops his EU withdrawal deal, forming a “Leave alliance” with the Tories.
But the prime minister has so far refused to agree, instead putting his Brexit deal at the centre of the Tories’ election campaign.
When asked about the Brexit Party fielding candidates in around 600 seats, Farage said: “I’ve wanted for months for there to be a Leave alliance, it seems obvious to me that no one party can own Brexit voters, there are Tory Brexit voters, there are Brexit Party Brexit voters and a lot of Labour Brexit voters.
“I always thought that to win an election, get a big majority so we can get a proper Brexit, a coming-together would be the objective.
“I still hope and pray it happens but it doesn’t look like it will.”
He also claimed Johnson’s current Brexit plan was not “genuine”.
“If Boris is determined to stick to this new EU treaty, then that is not Brexit,” he said.
“I promise you one thing: if Boris was going for a genuine Brexit, then we wouldn’t need to fight him in this election.”
Senior Tories suggested Farage should stand his party’s election campaign down and back Johnson to deliver Brexit with his deal.
Steve Baker, who leads the hard Leave European Research Group (ERG), said: “Serious politics requires more than chucking difficulties into a crisis.”
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak told Marr: “I campaigned for Leave, I spent a lot of time talking to my constituents and others across the north east and in Yorkshire - what do they want from Brexit?
“They want to end free movement and replace it with a points system, they want to end the fact that money keeps going to the EU year after year, they want to make sure we’re in control of our laws and also they want us to have an independent trade policy. These are all things the prime minister’s deal deliver.
“What I would say to Nigel Farage is sometimes in politics, as in life, you’ve got to take yes for an answer.”