The Brexit party has emerged as the big winner of the European elections. Nigel Farage’s party, formed just six weeks ago, surged to victory – winning 32pc of the votes and getting 29 of its candidates elected as MEPs. Only Merkel’s CDU has as many MEPs: they’re joint first. Unsurprisingly, Farage has been on a victory tour since the result came in. In his victory speech in Southampton, Farage said his new party’s success ought to be a ‘big wake up call to Westminster’ – and reiterated his demand for his MEPs to be including in the government’s Brexit negotiating team:
‘We voted to leave in a referendum and we voted to do so on March 29th and we haven’t. The Labour and Conservative parties can learn a big lesson from tonight but I don’t suppose that they actually will.’
So, what next for the Brexit party? Farage has made clear that he now plans to move the Brexit party to a general election setting: ‘If Britain does not leave the EU on October 31st, these results will be repeated at a general election.’
When I met with Farage on the campaign trail in Dudley, he told me about his plans for winning big in a general election – and why not even a new Tory Brexiteer leader who pursues a no deal Brexit could convince him to step aside:
- Politicians who want to dismiss success for the Brexit party in the Euros as a protest vote ‘don’t understand this dynamic’:
They don’t understand this dynamic at all.
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