Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage’s plan to field about 600 candidates in the December 12 U.K. general election is not without controversy. Farage, who will campaign tirelessly for his colleagues throughout the country, stands accused of being a spoiler.
His critics claim that he is jeopardizing a divorce from the European Union by potentially splitting the pro-Brexit vote and thereby allow a far-left, pro-Remain candidate win in some swing districts.
If the opposition Labor Party (which is roughly equivalent to the U.S. Democrats) plus several smaller parties win enough seats in the House of Commons, it could install the Marxist, anti-Semite Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister in the House of Commons.
Farage, who is a longtime member of the mostly ceremonial European Parliament and has decided against running for a seat in Commons this time, is receiving a lot of blowback from what in the U.S. is described as “Conservative, Inc.” or among the Big Government conservatives.
These are the pundits, websites, and politicians that President Trump, a former Democrat and independent who ran in 2016 on the GOP ticket, often decried as all talk and no action.
With their cushy think tanks, policy papers, and lofty pronouncements, Conservative Inc. on this side of the Atlantic has proved ineffective in preventing the advance of an increasing radical, left-wing agenda in the U.S. Many of the Conservative Inc. Never Trumpers have abandoned their so-called principles and gone liberal once Trump took office.
Trump has also opined that unlike Republicans, Democrats are (a) vicious and (b) stick together.
Conservative Inc. has also failed miserably to protect the American economy from unfair trade practices (in fact, just the opposite), defend free speech, or secure the border.
Conservatives in Name Only
One example over in the U.K. is the usually reliable Guido Fawkes political blog which now seems more pro-Boris than pro-Brexit.
The “Conservatives” in the U.K. also plan a big spending program to by votes in the same way as their opponents.
Farage has countered that in the 2015 election, UKIP (his former party) took more votes from Labor than the Conservatives despite the conventional wisdom, thereby enabling the Conservatives to enough seats to install David Cameron as prime minister.
For their failure to deliver Brexit so far, more than three year after the Brexit referendum, Farage has insisted that the Conservatives (a.k.a. Tories) can’t be trusted unless Prime Minister Boris Johnson agrees to keep a no-deal or clean-break Brexit on the table.
Farage has repeatedly proposed forming a Leave alliance with the Conservatives which would constitute uniting around one candidate (either a Conservative or a BXPer) in each constituency. So far, Johnson has ruled that out. BXP candidates are apparently on notice that they may be required to step down as circumstances develop.
Farage says this will result in a huge pro-Brexit majority forming the next parliament. Remainers dominated the just-dissolved parliament, about 50 of whom decided against seeking reelection.
Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May tried and failed to get a watered-down deal with the European Union — which was Brexit in Name Only — approved by parliament. After extracting a few concessions from the EU, in appears that Johnson, is attempting to “get Brexit done” by pushing BRINO 2.0.
Johnson seems to have convinced many Brexiteers that what is championing returns the country at long last to self-governance.
A non-Brexit Brexit is unacceptable to Farage and most of the Brexit Party, although several candidates have defected and endorsed their Tory counterpart based on the premise that Boris’ deal is the only option.
Although intent on running a national campaign, the Breixt Party is arguably primarily focused on Labor Leave seats in the north of England, where many pro-Brexit Labor voters would never vote Tory.
The Choice is Remain or Remain
The smaller Remain parties have already taken steps to avoid splitting their vote, the Spectator‘s Evening Blend email newsletter has reported: “The Liberal Democrats, Greens and Plaid Cymru agreed to a ‘Unite to Remain’ pact in 60 seats across England and Wales. The parties will stand down candidate to give one party the best chance of winning.”
The London-centric Labor Party seems to have a schizophrenic approach to Brexit. It claims it wants to negotiate a better deal with the EU and then put to a second referendum. Yet many Labor politicians claim they would vote against the deal — the deal they negotiated — in the second referendum.
If Labor gets its way, the second referendum would essentially be a choice between Remain and Remain.
In the 2017 snap election, the Tories and Labor promised, however, to respect the referendum an ddeliver Brexit.
Last June, the Brexit Party fell just 683 seats short in special parliamentary election won by the Labor Party with just 31 percent, an outcome that is still under police investigation for possible voter fraud. The BXP would have won easily if the Conservative candidate had dropped out.
The influential, cross-party Leave.eu group is calling on the Conservatives and the Brexit Party to get together, but as a fallback, is implementing an app that will help voters vote tactically in a multi-candidate field. Theoretically, this could avoid a scenario where a constituent votes Conservative or BXP but winds up getting Labor.
Absent an accommodation between the Tories and BXP, Leave voters may have to make a difficult decision on December 12.
Vote Leave, Get Remain? Time will tell.
Nigel Farage, who is perhaps the world’s best orator, fends off more conventional wisdom and politics as usual on Good Morning Britain.
Added: From Breitbart London:
“Nigel Farage is reportedly extending an olive branch to individual Conservatives by potentially standing down Brexit Party candidates in Tory Brexiteer seats, in order to ensure a Brexit government. On a campaign visit to Labour seats in the Midlands, Mr Farage had told The Telegraph that he was ‘open’ to such a move. But he suggested it was conditional on the Conservative candidates pledging not to back Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s withdrawal treaty.
“The Brexit Party leader has warned that Mr Johnson’s EU-approved deal ‘is not Brexit. It is a sell-out.’ While the Withdrawal Agreement Bill had passed its first hurdle in the House of Commons, the prime minister would have to begin the process over again and bring the bill back to a new cohort of MPs after the December 12th election.
“Asked if he would strike a deal with a Conservative MP who said they would not vote for the bill, Mr Farage told the right-wing newspaper: ‘I would look forward to speaking to them.’
“… Mr Farage had said later that evening that he had ‘given up’ trying to make a pact with the upper echelons of the Conservative Party.”
[Featured image credit: Stefan Schweihofer/Pixabay]
