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Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage threatened to field candidates in every constituency in the Dec. 12 election if Prime Minister Boris Johnson refuses to abandon his deal with the European Union and form a “leave alliance” to deliver a clean-break Brexit.
Speaking at the launch of his party’s campaign at an event in central London, Farage said the deal agreed by Johnson on Oct. 17 “isn’t Brexit” and he will make sure every voter knows that before they go to the polls.
Farage said he wants to agree a “non-aggression pact” with Johnson in which Conservative candidates would stand down in 150 seats where the Brexit Party is well placed to beat Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and he would do the same in return.
“There are around 150 seats in this country that are Labour-held constituencies that the Conservative Party have never ever won in their history,” Farage said. “The only way to solve this is to build a leave alliance across the country.”
There are concerns among some Conservative activists that the Brexit Party will split the anti-EU vote in some parts of the country, costing them seats they could otherwise win. But the party has so far rejected Farage’s overtures in favor of selling Johnson as the man to “get Brexit done.”
Farage compared Johnson’s deal with the EU to a used car with a shiny hood but a failing engine. It’s just Theresa May’s deal with a new coat of paint, he said.
“This is Mrs May’s appalling surrender deal. This is not Brexit,” he said. If Johnson refuses to ditch it, “by the time Dec. 12 comes along the country will understand what’s in it, they’ll understand it’s not Brexit. We’ll make sure of that,” he said.