- Brexit Party Making a "Massive Impact" on the UK, Brexit - Richard Tice, Brexit Party Chairman
- 5m Brexit Supporters in Labour Heartlands the 'Most Vulnerable' - Nigel Farage
- Farage Opens Up To Media About Brexit, PM Johnson
Leading members of the Brexit Party introduced 600 parliamentary candidates (PPCs) on Monday at a rally in Westminster, London on Monday. Brexit Party chairman Richard Tice and party leader Nigel Farage delivered speeches to highlight party gains in recent weeks.
Brexit Party Making a "Massive Impact" on the UK, Brexit - Richard Tice, Brexit Party Chairman
The Brexit Party had made a “massive impact on the future direction on the UK and its general election", Mr Tice said, adding that Labour was “petrified as to what may happen in the Labour heartlands”.
Former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith had accused the Tories of becoming the Brexit Party, but were “far, far from it”, Tice said.
Brexit was “absolutely vital” and resonated among many groups and political viewpoints, he noted, evidencing that the “zombie Parliament” in Westminster was “almost finished”.
The Brexit Party was not a “single-issue party”, but held a policy platform with key issues such as reforming the postal voting system, replacing the House of Lords with a smaller democratic upper chamber and further scrutiny of Supreme Court judges, Mr Tice explained.
Massive investment was urgent across the country and the Brexit Party platform would raise £200bn by scrapping High Speed 2 (HS2), recalling £39bn in contributions to the EU, £7bn to the European Investment Bank (EIB) and 50 percent of foreign aid towards UK public services, among others, he said.
‘Left-behind’ regions across the UK would benefit from £100bn in physical infrastructure, roads, railways and digital connectivity, Mr Tice added.
Investing in young people with interest-free loans and levy-free apprenticeships were also key policies, he explained, as well as "common-sense" strategies such as tackling environmental issues by improving domestic recycling programmes and planting thousands of trees across the UK.
5m Brexit Supporters in Labour Heartlands the 'Most Vulnerable' - Nigel Farage
Parliamentary candidates should remain strong whilst standing up for Party principles, despite potential abuse from the media and political opposition, Mr Farage said.
He said: "I’m guessing that you, our prospective parliamentary candidates, over the course of a week or two, have begun to receive a little bit of abuse. Good! I’ve had twenty-five years of it!
The 12 December general election had seen the “two big political tribes” regroup, with MPs "turning their backs” on promises made during and after the June 2016 EU Referendum and 2017 general elections, Farage said.
Farage slammed the mainstream media and others for placing too much focus on dialogue between the Tory and Brexit parties, stating that “the media and everyone else has forgotten the fact that 5m Labour voters had voted [for] Brexit”.
Mr Farage added: “And what we discovered was that [Mrs May] came back with that plan of Chequers, that new EU treaty she wanted the country to sign up to, [knowing] the fact that it was the most abject surrender... a document you would have only signed if you had been beaten in war.
“It was utterly shameful and thank goodness, it had been defeated,” Farage said to the sound of applause.
Mr Farage said that whilst Boris Johnson was “full of optimism, energy, and fire”, he had only amended Mrs May’s treaty “in terms of the customs union membership” for the UK.
But in doing so, Mr Johnson had “hived off” a part of the UK, referring to Northern Ireland, despite promises not to do so, leading to future “disastrous” problems with Scotland and a further three years of negotiations with EU Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
“Now that is a very tempting slogan on a public, who over three and a half years of this process, have just about had enough,” he said.
Nigel Farage restated issues with the Prime Minister’s EU treaty, including raising the EU divorce bill from £39bn to £65bn and forcing the UK to remain in the EU Common Fisheries policy to renegotiate future trade agreements with Brussels, among others.
The Brexit Party had attempted build a “patriotic alliance” with Conservatives and “strong voices in the Labour Party” on the basis of free trade and a clean-break Brexit, which would win a parliamentary majority, Mr Farage said.
But he slammed Conservatives for shutting down the argument, citing Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, who said “the Brexit Party should stand aside and leave it to the Conservatives”. The “clock was ticking” with only ten days left before nominations had closed, he said.
“There will be no Brexit without the Brexit Party,” he said whilst stating that it was more important to support the Party’s 600 PPCs as their leader rather than “being hunkered down” to become elected.
Farage Opens Up To Media About Brexit, PM Johnson
Speaking to the media about Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Mr Farage said that he believed that No 10 “truly doesn’t want Brexit”.
“He does not want a genuine Brexit,” Mr Farage said, adding that there were rumours that “Conservatives may not back the manifesto committed in the summer to leaving with a no-deal clean break,” which Theresa May had known about “two years ago”.
Mr Farage said in a statement: “So, it looks to me that Boris is trying to reunite the Tory tribe in relegating a genuine Brexit in terms of its supporters and direction.
Refuting Mr Rees-Moggs claim that he should stand aside, Farage hit back, stating that both the Commons leader and Prime Minister had given speeches in recent months, "about what was wrong with the new EU treaty”.
“That’s what you get in Westminster politics,” Farage said.
“There will be a clear choice”, Mr Farage told the media. "If they want to vote for a party that believes in Brexit, they’ll vote for it in December”.
He added: “We are furious at what Labour had done and are angry, in some ways, at what Mr Johnson has been saying, that this [Withdrawal Agreement] ‘gets Brexit done’ when all it does is take us into three more years of negotiations.
Prime Minister Johnson began pushing for the UK's departure from the EU since taking office in late July after former PM May's resignation in May.
Commons blocked his proposal to trigger snap elections three times in recent months, but Jeremy Corbyn agreed in late October after stating that a no-deal scenario had been taken off the table.
A new Parliament would ratify the current Brexit bill after the 12 December elections, Mr Johnson said, and would allow the UK to finalise Brexit following the 2016 EU referendum, where Brits voted 52 to 48 percent to leave the European Union.