Nigel Farage faces a major Brexit Party revolt tonight after candidates dramatically stood down at the eleventh hour to avoid splitting the Eurosceptic vote.
Dudley North hopeful Rupert Lowe and Andy Wood, who was due to fight Hove, withdrew just before the 4pm deadline for nominations.
The late pull-out means Mr Farage cannot replace them – and the Brexit Party leader voiced fury this evening.
He accused Boris Johnson’s aides of ringing his candidates ‘offering them jobs if they withdraw’. ‘The system is corrupt and broken,’ he raged. No10 sources described the claim as ‘b******s’.
It also appeared tonight that the party’s candidate in the Labour-held marginal of Canterbury had also decided not to run.
Mr Farage this week insisted that the party would challenge incumbent Rosie Dufffield ‘come what may’, but the name of candidate Owen Prew – or any other Brexit Party representative – was missing from the official nomination paper published by the local council this evening.
The developments came after Mr Farage vowed to fight Jeremy Corbyn in every Labour-held seat.
The MEP dismissed pleas from his own allies such as Arron Banks to avoid splitting the Eurosceptic vote, saying they were suffering from ‘Brexhaustion’.
Instead he condemned Mr Johnson for refusing to give way in Leave-voting Labour heartlands where the Conservatives could ‘never’ win.
He warned anyone elected for the Brexit Party would never be ‘good little boys and girls’ by falling into line with a half-hearted departure from the EU.
But Mr Lowe, also an MEP, said in a statement this evening: ‘It is with a heavy heart I have decided not to contest Dudley North as a Brexit Party candidate.
‘I am putting country before party as it is highly conceivable my candidacy could allow Corbyn’s Momentum candidate to win. They are simply not fit to govern.’
Mr Wood urged Brexit Party voters in Hove to support Conservative candidate Robert Nemeth.
‘Now is the time to put Country before Party and I am, therefore, announcing that I will not be standing as a candidate for the Brexit Party in Hove,’ he told the Brighton Argus.
‘I believe strongly in the values and aims of the Brexit Party and I sincerely hope they win the seats they are contesting and are therefore able to hold Boris Johnson’s feet to the fire.
‘The Conservative candidate in Hove, Robert Nemeth, has declared that he is completely committed to this pledge.’
A clearly livid Mr Farage said: ‘Even Boris Johnson’s Chief Strategic Adviser Sir Edward Lister is calling our candidates and offering them jobs if they withdraw. The system is corrupt and broken.’
Nigel Farage (pictured on a visit to Grimsby today) is still refusing to back down any further in the election struggle with the Tories
Mr Farage accused Boris Johnson’s close aides of ringing his candidates ‘offering them jobs if they withdraw’
In a signal of intent, the Brexit Party has unveiled Apprentice star Michelle Dewberry as its hopeful to fight Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle
Mr Farage accused aides of Boris Johnson (pictured today in Bristol) aides of ringing his candidates ‘offering them jobs if they withdraw’
At a rally in Hull earlier, Mr Farage turned his guns fully on Mr Corbyn, saying he cared ‘more about Hoxton’ than the north and the party had been taken over by ‘intellectuals’.
‘We are going to fight Labour in every seat in this country, be in no doubt,’ he said.
In a signal of intent, the Brexit Party unveiled Apprentice star Michelle Dewberry as its hopeful to fight Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle.
It comes after Mr Farage apparently rejected a last-minute electoral pact offer from Mr Johnson, in which the Tories would stand so-called paper candidates to make way for the Brexit Party in 40 of their target seats.
But Mr Farage was insistent on the Tories standing down completely in the constituencies. A Brexit Party source said: ‘If this offer was made it was an offer of the status quo.’.
There are claims the Tories offered an informal pact that would have meant it only fielding ‘paper’ candidates against 40 Brexit Party hopefuls.
But asked about the report in the Daily Telegraph, a Tory source said: ‘We don’t do electoral pacts as we have been very clear on.’
A Brexit Party source said: ‘At every election the Tories have upwards of 100 paper candidates.
‘It looks like an attempt to portray the Brexit Party and Nigel Farage as unreasonable, despite the huge concessions that we have made, both on a policy and on the unilateral decision not to stand in the 317 Tory held seats.’
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Mr Farage said: ‘The job of the Brexit Party is to hold him (Boris Johnson) to account, because too many times over the last three years the Conservatives have made promises and not delivered.’
He added: ‘This all started way back in September when I sent to Number 10 some polling that said that in their 40 key seats, if I endorsed their Conservative candidate, one-third of Labour voters in those seats would vote Conservative on a one-off basis to get a genuine Brexit done.
‘And ever since that time, what I’ve realised is that the Conservatives want a Conservative majority in Parliament, not a Brexit majority in Parliament.’
‘There are very clearly seats in which we are the lead challenger and their are other seats in which they are the lead challenger to Labour, and we could have done a deal on that basis, but the priority for the Conservative Party, they do not want the Brexit Party to get seats in Parliament.
‘They’d rather risk not winning the election than having a Leave majority, a Leave alliance.’
Mr Farage admitted that Leave.EU campaign chief Mr Banks has ‘given up’ on the Brexit cause as he’s ‘had enough of Brexit’ and has got ‘Brexhasution’.
Responding to Mr Bank’s comments that it is ‘time to take the chips off the table’ and get behind the Conservative Party to deliver Brexit, Mr Farage said: ‘You’re right, he has given it up.
‘Look, Arron Banks has never given a penny to the Brexit Party, let’s be clear about that, he’s not supported the Brexit Party.
The developments came after Mr Farage vowed to fight Jeremy Corbyn (pictured tonight in Linlithgow, Scotland, in every Labour-held seat
Mr Farage has condemned Boris Johnson (pictured visiting a school in Taunton today) for refusing to give way in Leave-voting Labour heartlands
Rebecca Pow, the Tory candidate seeking re-election in Taunton Deane, joked: ‘I think the kids are better at singing than the Prime Minister’
‘He, I think, has just had enough of Brexit, it’s Brexhaustion and he’s happy, he was happy for some reason to go along with Mrs May and Boris’s deal.
‘What we’ve got so far in this campaign is for Boris to promise to change direction, what we now have to do is to hold him to account to make sure we get a proper Brexit, and that’s my job.’
In a major climbdown, Mr Farage announced on Monday that his party would not run in the 317 constituencies the Conservatives won at the 2017 general election, after initially saying his party would field more than 600 candidates.
‘Brexit is the real end of the British Empire’: Donald Tusk tells Remainers ‘don’t give up’ as he wades into election battle
The bombshell valedictory message was issued by Mr Tusk during a speech in Bruges about the philosopher Hannah Arendt
Donald Tusk has waded into the UK election by branding Brexit the ‘end of the British empire’ – and told Remainers: ‘Don’t give up.’
The outgoing EU council chief delivered an extraordinary condemnation of Britain’s attempts to get out of the bloc, saying it will become a ‘second rate nation’.
Admitting he was breaching diplomatic protocol, Mr Tusk used a speech last night to claim the only way the UK could be a ‘global player’ was within the EU.
But Brexiteers compared the Eurocrat’s intervention to a ‘jilted lover’, and said it demonstrated the importance of cutting ties with Brussels quickly.
The bombshell valedictory message was issued by Mr Tusk during a speech in Bruges about the philosopher Hannah Arendt.
He said he made the decision amid fears that it could split the Brexit vote, leading to a hung parliament and a second referendum.
But there have been calls for Mr Farage to go even further if he wants to keep Mr Corbyn out of Number 10.
Candidates who want to stand as MPs needed to hand in nomination papers by 4pm, and candidates who want to withdraw their nominations had to do so by the same time.
A new poll has found the Tories are in the lead with 40 per cent while Labour is on 30 per cent ahead of next month’s election.
The voting intention poll for the Telegraph, which involved 2,022 adults on November 11 and 12, put the Lib Dems on 16 per cent and the Brexit Party on 7 per cent.
At a briefing for reporters this afternoon, respected pollster Sir John Curtice said the election could be regarded as an ‘unpopularity contest’ for both Mr Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
He said: ‘As far as the two main parties are concerned this is an unpopularity contest.’
He added: ‘In 2017, as you all remember, Theresa May was strong and stable and she was the person who was going to save the country from the Brexit mess.
‘And so she started off in a very strong position with far more people approving than disapproving of her.
‘Boris doesn’t start off with that. Boris starts off with as many disapproving as approving.
‘I think he is … the most unpopular new prime minister in polling history.
‘That’s essentially, of course, basically because Boris is loved by Brexiteers and he is hated by Remainers, so he is Marmite.
‘The thing you have to bear in mind now is that the Boris Johnson we have now is not the Boris Johnson who was mayor of London, who was able to reach across the political divide in the capital.
‘The Boris Johnson we have now is very firmly regarded as the person who is responsible for Brexit and is now trying to deliver Brexit and Remain voters regard him accordingly.’
On the Labour leader, Sir John said: ‘Corbyn starts off in a slightly worse position than he did last time, though he starts off in a slightly better position among those who are saying they are going to vote Labour.’
He added: ‘By the end of the (2017) election, (Mr Corbyn) almost has as many people thinking he was doing a good job as doing a bad job, and people approving or disapproving.
‘But it’s all gone. He’s starting back from where he was and, sure, that doesn’t make it any easier for the Labour Party to win votes.’
He continued: ‘Perhaps Jeremy Corbyn is not the world’s best party leader, except that he can campaign. And one of the interesting things about 2017 election was how by the end of it you could just see the smile on Corbyn’s face.
‘He was going ‘God, this is so fun, can we do this all the time please? It’s great,’ because he loves engaging with voters.
‘The problem, of course, he has this time is that, although Boris is less popular than Theresa May, a) voters know more about him whereas at the end of the day Theresa May was a bit of blank sheet on which voters we saying ‘Oh well, she seems to be kind of all right’, but, second, Boris is … potentially a much stronger performer.’
Business Secretary Leadsom said she is ‘absolutely confident’ that the Conservatives will get a free trade deal done by the end of 2020.
But when pressed on the matter on ITV’s Peston, Ms Leadsom said: ‘Until we reach the end of 2020, we won’t know for sure.’
She added: ‘I think anybody who wants to leave the European Union with a deal needs to vote Conservative.
‘Voting for the Brexit Party won’t mean we leave the EU. It will simply mean we get Jeremy Corbyn.’
Meanwhile, European Council president Donald Tusk has appeared to back Mr Johnson’s opponents by advising campaigners not to give up on stopping Brexit.
In a speech, Mr Tusk said: ‘The UK election takes place in one month. Can things still be turned around? Hannah Arendt taught that things become irreversible only when people start to think so.
‘So the only words that come to my mind today are simply: Don’t give up. In this match, we had added time, we are already in extra time, perhaps it will even go to penalties?’
Priti Patel vows the Tories will cut immigration as she warns 840,000 more people a year could arrive in Britain if Jeremy Corbyn becomes PM
Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed the Tories will ‘reduce immigration’ and warned numbers would ‘surge’ if Jeremy Corbyn became PM.
The Conservatives said analysis of new research into Labour’s proposals for open borders suggests net migration ‘could increase to 840,000 per year.’
They said the analysis, described as ‘fake news’ by Labour, was based on official figures and the Government’s own methodology.
But Labour branded it the latest from the Tory Party’s ‘make-believe research department’.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘Under Corbyn’s Labour, immigration would surge and put huge strain on schools and our NHS.
‘Jeremy Corbyn has no credible plan for how to deal with the consequences of his open borders policy.
‘The biggest risk to our NHS is Corbyn’s plans for uncontrolled and unlimited immigration, forever.’
Home Secretary Priti Patel said introduce the Australian style points based system so that ‘we can control our border and protect public services’
She added: ‘His plan to hold another two referendums next year – and all the chaos that will bring – will mean that his Government will not have time to focus on the people’s priorities.
‘By contrast, the Conservatives will get Brexit done, end free movement and introduce an Australian-style points system so that we can control our borders and protect our public services.
‘We will reduce immigration overall while being more open and flexible to the highly skilled people we need, such as scientists and doctors.
‘This can only happen if people vote for a Conservative majority Government so we can leave the EU with a deal.’
According to the Tories, the research shows extending free movement to the rest of the world would result in average net immigration to the UK of 840,000 a year over the next 10 years.