Nigel Farage latest: Brexit Party to stand down candidates in Tory-held seats in general election

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Nigel Farage today staged a humiliating climbdown from his vow to fight 600 seats in the general election by promising a free ride to 317 sitting Conservatives.

The Brexit Party leader backed down after Boris Johnson flatly refused to buckle to pressure for an election pact with the controversial pro-Leave campaigner.

His decision is a setback to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who now faces the full assault of Brexit Party candidates in his party’s seats.

An embarrassed-looking Mr Farage announced he was backing down at a rally in Hartlepool, a key target seat, where he said he had come to the reluctant conclusion that he risked undermining Brexit if he kept going.

Nigel Farage pictured today
AFP via Getty Images

“I will tell you now exactly what we are going to do,” he told supporters. “The Brexit Party will not contest the 317 seats the Conservatives won at the last election.

“But what we will do is concentrate our total effort into all the seats that are held by the Labour Party, who have completely broken their manifesto pledge in 2017 to respect the result of the referendum. And we will also take on the rest of the Remainer parties. We will stand up and we will fight them all.”

The decision is a major setback for Mr Farage’s strategy of trying to force the Conservatives to shift to the Right and adopt a no-deal Brexit policy.

It means he is now effectively paving the way for the Brexit deal that he has poured scorn on for weeks.

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He had faced a grassroots and donor revolt, with the Telford candidate last night becoming the latest to stand down for fear of splitting the pro-Brexit vote and letting a Remain candidate win.

Downing Street was cock-a-hoop at the announcement which means Tory MPs defending their seats will be safer — although Mr Farage will still campaign in marginal seats held by Labour which are the key to Mr Johnson’s hopes of a Commons majority.

Mr Farage told the crowd, which applauded his decision: “I have tried over the course of the last few months to build a Leave alliance ... But that effectively has come to nought. It’s been very, very difficult.” He said private polling showed Brexit candidates “from SW London to Hampshire and right out through a western corridor to Land’s End” would split the Tory vote and result in “large number of Liberal Democrat gains”.

The outcome would be a second referendum, he predicted, if new Lib-Dem MPs were able to ally with Labour and the SNP. “If there was a second referendum it would be disastrous for trust in our entire democratic system, for business and investment into our country,” he added.

Mr Farage said he still hoped for a no-deal Brexit. “It’s been a difficult decision to make but last night for the first time I saw something since that Brussels summit that actually was optimistic,” he said. “I saw Boris Johnson on a video saying we will not extend the transition period beyond the end of 2020.”

The pressure on Mr Farage had been intense, with Leave campaigner and donor Arron Banks among powerful Brexiteers calling on him to back down.

The Daily Mail ran a front-page appeal to him to withdraw and said it was “deluged” with letters from readers worried that Mr Farage would scupper Brexit.

Labour election candidate and former minister David Lammy tweeted: “Nigel Farage bottling it by standing down in Tory seats shows how vital it is for Remainers to co-operate.

“We cannot allow this hard-Right alliance between Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage — dancing to the tune of Donald Trump — to permanently wreck our country.”

Lib-Dem leader Jo Swinson tweeted: “The Conservative Party are the Brexit Party now.”

Naomi Smith, chief executive of pro-EU campaign group Best For Britain, said: “Farage has bottled it and hung most of his own candidates out to dry."

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