Boris Johnson has received a potentially game-changing boost to his election campaign. After weeks, if not months, of a standoff between Nigel Farage and the Conservative party, the Brexit party leader announced today that he has decided to stand down hundreds of candidates in the 317 constituencies won by the Tories (then led by Theresa May) in 2017. Farage announced that his party will instead focus its efforts on fighting parties backing Remain, including in Labour marginal seats where a majority of constituents voted to leave in 2016.
This was revealed by Farage in a speech delivered to a Brexit party election rally in Hartlepool today. Speaking to a crowd of the party faithful, Farage announced that he made his decision in the light of recent Brexit party private polling, which suggested that standing Brexit party candidates in 600 seats would split the Leave vote and lead to a hung parliament.
Farage’s concerns are justified, from the perspective of Brexiteers, by much recent polling that has suggested a majority of both the Conservative and Brexit party membership are in favour of Johnson’s deal. Farage also came under fire when twenty candidates who were set to stand for the Brexit party in the election resigned out of fear that Farage’s strategy would jeopardise Brexit altogether.
The war of words over Johnson’s Brexit deal has also given way to a more conciliatory tone. According to Farage, a crucial factor informing his decision to stand down Brexit party candidates was the promise from Johnson’s side not to extend the free trade negotiations beyond 2020 in a campaign video shared on Twitter on 10 November. In the same video, the Prime Minister’s ambition to negotiate for a “on the model of a Super Canada plus arrangement”. Farage said that Johnson’s ambitions now sound “a bit more like the Brexit we voted for.”
The choice of location for the speech was also significant – an emphatic 70% of voters in Hartlepool voted to leave the European Union in 2016. This is the Brexit party heartlands. It is a hugely important symbolic moment in the campaign, one which could mean that Brexit party-supporting voters in the Midlands and the North may now be more comfortable voting for the Conservatives – if Farage implies it is okay.
