Nigel Farage’s new Brexit party spells trouble for the Tories

Not for the first time, Nigel Farage is back. The former Ukip leader is backing a new Brexit party that has today been officially recognised by the Electoral Commission. The Brexit Party plans to field candidates across the UK and in any European elections, if they are held in the event of Article 50 being delayed or postponed. In the months after the referendum, the prospects for a pro-Brexit party looked to be limited. So, too, at the snap election in 2017, when both Labour and the Tories promised to deliver Brexit. But the backlash to Theresa May’s Brexit deal, Labour’s Brexit contortions – and Ukip’s obsession with Islam – has given a new party breathing room.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the party’s main focus is to make sure ‘that the United Kingdom shall cease to be a member of the European Union’. And its founder, Catherine Blaiklock, said several hundred Tory members are likely to defect – with the prospect that the number of Conservatives jumping ship could rise to the thousands.