Inducements claim ‘typical Nigel Farage attention-seeking’
Conservatives slam Nigel Farage’s claim that his candidates were offered inducements to stand down from election.
Nigel Farage has cried foul, claiming the Conservative Party was offering inducements to his Brexit Party candidates to stand down from the election in the final hours before the UK nomination deadline.
As the 4pm Greenwich Mean Time deadline passed for all nominations to be confirmed, Mr Farage said he had refused to buckle under immense pressure from the Tories to withdraw his Brexit Party from Tory-targeted fragile Labour seats. The day’s developments mark a new low in the relations between the two Leave parties.
The Tories wanted Mr Farage to stand down his Brexit Party candidates to allow them a free run in such seats in the first past the post voting system. But now with both Tory and Brexit Party candidates in most Labour held seats, there is a real risk in some seats that the Leave vote will split and the seat will be won by Labour.
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Mr Farage said Boris Johnson’s strategic adviser Sir Edward Lister had offered Brexit Party candidates jobs in exchange for withdrawing from the election at the last minute. He said his candidates had been bombarded to stand down. The Tories said this claim was “typical Farage attention-seeking” and that no jobs or peerages were offered.
But Mr Farage tweeted: “The system is corrupt and broken.”
Politics in this country is broken and corrupt. We need to Change Politics For Good. This is why: pic.twitter.com/kWEP5CTmYz
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) November 14, 2019
One candidate, Rupert Lowe, pulled his nomination from the tight seat of Dudley North just hours before the deadline. Labour holds the seat by just 22 votes.
Mr Lowe said: “I am putting country before party as it is highly conceivable my candidacy could allow Corbyn’s Momentum candidate to win.”
Later, it emerged another two Brexit candidates, Owen Prew and Andy Wood, had also withdrawn at the last minute. Mr Farage told The Telegraph that police would investigate.
“I expect there will be police investigations into what has gone on here ... the offer of peerages for material return is clearly an offence. And I think this may unravel over the next couple of days,” Mr Farage said.
The Brexit Party leader said Tory antics to encourage last minute withdrawals were “nothing short of disgraceful. This is happening in 21st century Britain, I think that is a complete and utter disgrace, I really do.”
Several days ago, Mr Farage stood down 317 Brexit Party candidates from standing in Tory-held seats but was annoyed that the Tory party didn’t then return the favour and run “paper candidates” or withdraw from seats where the Brexit Party might have a strong chance.
Mr Farage said he believed there will be a small Conservative majority at the December 12 election.
“That is just because Labour are in so much trouble everywhere,” Mr Farage said. “But if he’s (Boris Johnson) in the House of Commons and we are not there to challenge at every step of the way what he is doing, then I fear we will end up with something that is Brexit in name only.”
Earlier, political analyst Professor John Curtice told the Political Studies Association that he didn’t know where the Brexit party would win a Labour seat.
“What is the evidence that Nigel Farage can win a seat anywhere in Labour territory? Please tell me — I do not know where it exists,” he said, showing declining polling figures of the Brexit party he says have dipped well below six per cent.
Is this the #Brexit election? How is it affecting how people plan to vote? Our senior fellow Sir John Curtice @whatukthinks tells you all you need to know.#GE2019 #GEBrexit #GeneralElection2019 #GeneralElection19 @UKLabour @LibDems @Conservatives @brexitparty_uk @theSNP pic.twitter.com/EkIHulGM2A
— The UK in a Changing Europe (@UKandEU) November 14, 2019
Professor Curtice believed that the Brexit Party’s withdrawal from Tory seats may not have made a difference as the Tory party appeared likely to win most of those seats in any case.
He predicted that the Tories would need an overall lead of at least six or seven points to govern in its own right.
“If it gets below that the odds are beginning to swing in favour of a hung parliament rather than a Tory majority,” Professor Curtice said.
Various polling shows that the Tories, with about 36 to 40 per cent support, are ahead of Labour (on around 28 to 30 per cent), the Lib Dems (16 per cent) and the Brexit Party (four to nine per cent).
Meanwhile, the Home Secretary Priti Patel says the government was in early discussions with Australian authorities to adopt elements of the Australian immigration system after the election.
Mr Johnson has been a big fan of the points system, because it would give a Tory government control of who comes into the country and to target people with particular skills.
Ms Patel said on Thursday: “We are at early stages right now, we are working with our counterparts in Australia and we are developing this system. I have commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee to look at the framework of our immigration policy going forward, around our skills, our labour market needs.”
She added: “The point to make about the equivalent of an Australian points-based system is that number one, it gives immigration control back to the British government for the first time in over 40 years we’ll be able to control immigration.”
She said that with a points-based system the government could ensure the brightest and best people with the right skills were prioritised.
“We are not discriminating. It is not about putting EU citizens first and close off other parts of the world,” she said.
The Tories have indicated they will reduce overall immigration numbers after Brexit, while Labour is committed to maintaining the Freedom of Movement rights of EU citizens into the UK. However, Mr Corbyn told Sky News that a meeting this weekend would decide the Labour manifesto and it was not necessarily “every last dot and comma of every resolution” passed at the party conference.
Ms Patel claims the Labour policy would allow 840,000 people into the UK each year.
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