Shropshire Star

'My Brexit deal is ready to go': Boris Johnson reacts to Farage's pledge over candidates

Boris Johnson has responded to Nigel Farage's announcement that the Brexit Party has stood down more than 300 candidates in seats held by the Tories from the last general election.

Published
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reacted to the Brexit Party's announcement over candidates

The Prime Minister was visiting the offices of the Express & Star - the Shropshire Star's sister paper - in Wolverhampton when news broke that Mr Farage now plans to focus his party's efforts on Labour-held seats.

The Brexit Party will not be standing candidates in constituencies including Telford, Wrekin, Shrewsbury, North Shropshire, Ludlow and Montgomeryshire, marking a major climbdown for Mr Farage, who last week said his party was putting forward 600 candidates.

After being told of the announcement by the Express & Star, Mr Johnson said: "Let's see what the implications are. The crucial thing is that it is only by voting Conservative will Brexit be delivered.

"A vote for any other party means there is a risk that we simply won't get Brexit done. You vote for anyone else and you get a Corbyn-Sturgeon alliance that will be catastrophic for the country.

"To get it over the line we [the Conservatives] need a working majority, which means we need nine more seats than we have now.

"This is a very good deal we have done and it is ready to go."

Mr Johnson was in Wolverhampton to take part in the Armistice Day commemorations in the city centre.

Farage announcement

On a campaign visit to Hartlepool Mr Farage announced that the Brexit Party will not contest any of the 317 seats won by the Conservatives in the last general election.

"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."

Mr Farage said the Prime Minister's move towards a free trade deal with the European Union that did not include regulatory alignment was a "significant change" to the approach on Brexit.

"He said we would negotiate a super Canada-plus trade deal with no political alignment," said the Brexit Party leader.

"That is a huge change. Ever since Mrs May's abject speech in Florence, we have been aiming at a close and special partnership with the European Union.

"We had been aiming to stay part of many of its agencies.

"Boris last night signalled a very clear change in direction. I thought to myself overnight, 'That sounds a bit more like the Brexit we voted for'."