Brexit Party unveils Apprentice star Michelle Dewberry as candidate to fight Labour Leave stronghold of Hull West & Hessle for Nigel Farage
Former Apprentice star Michelle Dewberry (pictured) is standing for the Brexit Party in Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle
Former Apprentice star Michelle Dewberry is standing for the Brexit Party in Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle.
Ms Dewberry is representing Nigel Farage’s insurgents in her home seat – where she ran unsuccessfully as an independent two years ago.
The announcement came as Mr Farage vowed hundreds of Brexit Party candidates will fight the election, despite warnings that they could hand victory to Jeremy Corbyn by splitting the Leave vote.
The constituency voted 68 per cent to Leave in the referendum.
Nominations for the crunch ballot on December 12 must be in by 4pm this afternoon.
Ms Dewberry, 40 – who is due to appear with Mr Farage in the target constituency later – said: ‘Standing in this election was a tough choice for me to make.
‘But ultimately, I believe passionately that there are many people in Hull West and Hessle who have been let down by Labour.
‘As for the Tories, they have shown, year after year, that they do not care about The North — their sudden pretence that they do simply doesn’t wash with me.
‘Hull and Hessle voters need a new voice to represent them. The time for change is now.’
Ms Dewberry won the second series of hit BBC show The Apprentice in 2006.
She came fourth in Kingston-upon-Hull West & Hessle at the 2017 election, receiving 1,898 votes.
The Tories were in second on 10,317, while Labour’s Emma Hardy won with an 8,000 majority.
Mr Farage condemned Boris Johnson for refusing to give way in Leave-voting Labour heartlands where the Conservatives could ‘never’ win.
He said if the PM had been willing to do that, a third of Labour voters in some crucial target seats would have followed his advice to endorse the Tories.
Mr Farage said: ‘The job of the Brexit Party is to hold him to account, because too many times over the last three years the Conservatives have made promises and not delivered.’
Mr Farage (pictured left at a boxing club in Essex yesterday) is still refusing to back down any further in the election struggle with the Tories. Labour’s Emma Hardy (right) won in Hull West & Hessel in 2017