Nigel Farage demanded the Conservative Party stand aside and give it a free run in Labour seats today, saying only the Brexit Party could stop Jeremy Corbyn.
He told a rally that his new party was ‘not a protest movement’ as he unveiled the party’s first 100 candidates to stand at any snap general election.
And he took a swipe at Tory leadership favourite Boris Johnson – likely to be the next prime minister, saying ‘you can try if you want but I will not be put back in my box’.
After being introduced to a crowd of more than 5,000 in Birmingham carrying Brexit Party glowsticks, with an air raid siren booming out he tore into Labour.
He said: ‘There are many seats in the country, especially Labour-held seats, where we are the main challenger.
‘If you vote Tory you will get Corbyn and you should stand aside for the Brexit Party, who can beat him in these constituencies.’
Mr Farage appealed to the Tories, saying: ‘If you vote Tory you will get Corbyn and you should stand aside for the Brexit Party, who can beat him in these constituencies’
After being introduced to a crowd of more than 5,000 in Birmingham carrying Brexit Party glowsticks, with an air raid siren booming out, he tore into the main two parties
The election candidates were paraded before the audience at the Big Vision Rally in by Annunziata Rees-Mogg, a former Tory who is now a Brexit Party MEP.
At a flashy event which seemed more like a darts or boxing match atmosphere she warned that the party wanted to shake up Westminster.
‘MPs sitting in their offices in the Westminster bubble should be scared, she said.
‘We are not the same old, same, old.’
The unveiling of a group including teachers, civil engineers, economists and a forklift truck driver came as rumours continue to circulate that the country may head to the polls in the autumn as the Tory government seeks to complete Brexit.
Party chairman Richard Tice told the crowd the party would have 650 candidates ready to stand by the time the Tories finished with ‘the blond and the bland’ – a jibe at Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt’s leadership campaign.
He said: ‘We want to be the biggest party in Westminster. That is what today is about, we have to keep heading forward.’
Annunziata Rees-Mogg, a former Tory who is now a Brexit Party MEP, said: ‘MPs sitting in their offices in the Westminster bubble should be scared’
Party chairman Richard Tice told the crowd: ‘We want to be the biggest party in Westminster. That is what today is about, we have to keep heading forward’
More than 100 Brexit Party election candidates were unveiled in Birmingham today ahead of a possible autumn general election
Mr Tice also revealed that the party would reject a traditional party conference in September in favour of 11 regional rallies.
The party unhveiled plans for an astonishing £200billion to transform the British regions in the largest investment since the war as Mr Farage set his sights on the heart of Government.
The bold plan includes rebuilding the transport system, free broadband for all homes and scrapping interest payments on student loans.
It plans to fund the monster cash injection in areas outside London by refusing to send Brussels the £39billion Brexit ‘divorce bill’, scrapping the £14billion foreign aid budget and abandoning the £100billion HS2 high-speed rail project.
But that would still leave the party needing to find an extra £47billion from other sources.
Mr Farage’s party also has yet to win a Westminster seat but has heavily cut into Tory support as the party fights itself over Brexit and seeks a new leader.
Mr Farage, pictured at the Cricket World Cup at Lords last week, said: ‘For years now, London has thrived while the rest of the country has been left behind’
He added: ‘Labour has become the party of North London, not the North of England, and the European election results show that the Labour heartlands have become the Brexit heartlands’
Mr Farage told the Sunday Express: ‘For years now, London has thrived while the rest of the country has been left behind.
That’s why the Brexit Party will carry out the largest regional investment since the end of the Second World War, using the Brexit dividend to invest in the rest.
‘Labour has become the party of North London, not the North of England, and the European election results show that the Labour heartlands have become the Brexit heartlands.
‘They say it’s a postcode lottery, but a lottery only works if everybody has the same chance of winning. How can it be a lottery if there is no chance of winning?’
Boris Johnson today raised the spectre of shutting down Parliament to prevent MPs from blocking a No Deal Brexit today as the Tories fear defat by the Brexit Party.
Mr Johnson said: ‘I don’t like the idea of proroguing, I’m not remotely attracted to it but MPs have to understand their responsibility to get this thing done’
Asked about proroguing Parliament to push through Brexit, Mr Johnson told Sky’s Ridge on Sunday that MPs need to ‘understand the gravity of the situation and behave with responsibility’ before adding: ‘I don’t like the idea of proroguing, I’m not remotely attracted to it but MPs have to understand their responsibility to get this thing done and that was by far the best solution.
‘I don’t want to prorogue Parliament nor do I expect to, I don’t think that’s going to be necessary, and I think that its’s far more important that MPs focus on where we are because politics has changed since March 29 and people can see than unless we get Brexit done there is going to be a continuing haemorrhage of trust and of confidence in my party and Labour as well.’