Brexit: Cunning Nigel Farage could yet outfox everyone

Remainers may cry victory over prorogation but the Brexit Party is hoovering up voters.

Nigel Farage addresses party members and delegates at the Brexit Party conference. Picture: Getty Images.

You could hear the chanting across the car park. More than 1,000 people were streaming across the waterlogged fields into the exhibition centre wearing turquoise baseball caps and waxed jackets. There was homemade cake and tea. Exeter’s vast Westpoint arena is more used to holding sheep shows and craft fairs but last weekend it was hosting the Brexit Party, “the fastest growing party in the world”. The audience, made up of Devon’s lorry drivers, shopkeepers, farmers, beauticians and pensioners, most of whom had never been to a political conference, seemed entranced.

Richard Tice, the multi-millionaire Brexit Party chairman, with his 1950s matinee idol looks, was revving up the crowd. Behind him an assortment of candidates from air stewardesses and nurses to Evelyn Waugh’s grandson Alexander, were his back-up vocals. Then the party’s self-proclaimed agony aunt Ann Widdecombe swept on to the stage and the crowds went wild as she danced up and down shouting: “A deal is not leaving, that is merely moving from prison to house arrest.”

Ann Widdecombe addresses the party conference. Picture: Getty Images.

Waugh was next. “If you want to see what happens when the shires get angry, you only have to read Lord of the Rings,” he roared. The hobbits gave him a standing ovation. Then Mr Tice, brandishing a pair of handcuffs, bellowed: “Do you want to be free?” It got very intense.

Finally Nigel Farage stubbed out his cigarette as his bodyguards opened the entrance doors. The noise was stupendous. He sauntered down the aisle in his tweed jacket with velvet lapels. How he must have missed the limelight when he briefly left Ukip before joining this new party less than a year ago.

Who do they hate? He only had to say a name and the audience booed at another enemy of the people. Xavier Bettel, the “pipsqueak” prime minister of Luxembourg; Jean-Claude Juncker; Tory MPs; Labour MPs; especially Liberal Democrat MPs; civil servants; the BBC; girly swots; “that ghastly little man called Bercow”; David Cameron; all Etonians; Oxbridge; judges; “political correctness gone mad” - the whole wicked, woke establishment in the distant metropolis with their Guatemalan avocados on toast. This audience was with Brenda from Bristol rather than Brenda Hale.

“Wash your mouth out with soap and water if you say the words no-deal Brexit,” the leader said to laughter. “It’s a clean break we want. Even without the Irish backstop, May’s withdrawal agreement remains the worst deal in history.” The big question is, “Can we trust Boris?” he shouted. “No!” they screamed back.

Nigel Farage addresses party members and delegates at the Brexit Party Conference. Picture: Getty Images.

Mr Farage wants the next election to be about “parliament versus the people”, the “Remainer establishment versus the country”, not just Brussels. This was his eighth regional conference since he won the European elections in May and he has been feted from Doncaster to Newport, Colchester to Telford. Exeter, a university city, voted to remain but the majority in the West Country wanted to leave the EU and they hate being called stupid.

While Labour tore itself apart in Brighton and the Tories are divided on everything from Brexit to badgers, the Brexit Party has been quietly touring the country garnering the votes of the disaffected and disillusioned with its simplistic message. Its coffers are full, its online marketing slick, its MEPs and parliamentary candidates all agree, it doesn’t have members who might get uppity, just supporters who pay pounds 25 to sign up. No one questions that Mr Farage is its unelected, self-appointed leader. A recent YouGov poll put the party on only 14 per cent from a high of 26 per cent before Mr Johnson took over, but that was after the prime minister promised to leave by Hallowe’en. The moment Mr Johnson can’t live up to that commitment, Mr Farage stands to win back the hardcore Leave votes.

The Brexit Party has learnt from the mistakes of Ukip. It has weeded out the Tommy Robinson followers and stamped out the anti-Muslim rhetoric while still attacking “project fear”. Julie Burchill, the in-house Brexiteer newspaper scribe, tells supporters that Remainers get a “kinky kick from scaring themselves”. Tim Martin, Wetherspoon’s founder, reassures them that the pub chain has “seamlessly switched from French brandy and champagne to superior UK and Aussie alternatives”. The party has no manifesto and few post-Brexit policies; almost none were mentioned at the rally other than that it wants to scrap HS2 and halve the aid budget. But its underlying message is clear. The country is fed up with the failures, lies, in-fighting and betrayals of the Westminster political class. Instead, voters should join what Mr Farage would like us to think is a “People’s Revolt”. This didn’t sound like a man prepared to enter into any kind of election pact with the Tories or be fobbed off with a peerage.

Mr Johnson is now seen to have misled the Queen in his attempt to deliver Brexit. Mr Farage makes it clear that he would never have done that, giving him another advantage in the eyes of royalist Brexit voters. If a general election is called before Christmas, the Lib Dems and Labour could split Remain voters but the Brexit Party could do serious damage to the Tories.

Mr Farage has proved that he knows how to twist the agenda. He is more cunning than either Mr Johnson or Dominic Cummings, and his scary populist movement increasingly looks more professional than the established brands. Remainers will be celebrating that the Supreme Court has helped their cause but the Brexit Party could yet be the winner.

The Times