Nigel Farage has claimed more than 10 Conservative MPs could be ready to form a new political “insurgency” and has suggested joining forces with Boris Johnson.
The former UKIP and Brexit Party leader suggested Johnson’s resignation as a Tory MP on Friday amid claims he was forced out by an investigation into his involvement in Partygate.
In a scathing 1,000-word resignation letter, Johnson swung at the Tories under Rishi Sunak’s leadership. He claimed a “witch-hunt underway to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result”.
Farage suggested that other Conservatives could follow suit, hinting at the possibility of a new political alliance with Johnson at the fore.
The GB News presenter told the channel: “If he wants to defend his Brexit legacy, I want to protect my Brexit legacy too.
An Unprecedented Move to Preserve the Brexit Legacy
“Would there be a possibility of a new coming together on the centre-right? It would be Boris Johnson; other MPs would join in with this as well.”
Farage added: “I have discussed it with people very close to him and around him.”
He added that he doesn’t think Johnson has “any future in the Conservative Party, whatsoever” and that “gifting” his seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip to Labour will “be seen to be doing damage to the party”.
Commenting on the Tory Party’s turmoil on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Farage said Johnson’s only hope of staying in politics is to “be a part of some sort of centre-right realignment”.
Nigel Farage has spoken to several individuals in Boris Johnson’s close circle about a possible political alliance with the former U.K. prime minister to shake up the Westminster status quo and defend the legacy of Brexit.
Speaking to GB News on Sunday, the former political leader turned conservative commentator described a “huge opening” now emerging in British politics. Farage claimed “the gap between Westminster and the country is now bigger than it was ten years ago” when his U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) mounted electoral pressure on a Conservative party led by David Cameron.
A Possible Alliance to Protect Brexit’s Impact
“I think the sense of broken Britain, the health service doesn’t work anymore, that people’s kids and grandkids can’t even get onto the housing ladder. I think these things are authentic. So, there’s an enormous opportunity there,” he told the broadcaster.
Asked directly about a potential partnership with Boris Johnson, Farage said: “I disagree with Boris Johnson fundamentally on many of his metro, liberal views. But if anyone can turn on a sixpence and say they now believe in something completely different, it’s Boris Johnson.”
He explained that despite their political differences, “on the biggest constitutional question we will face in our lifetimes, namely Brexit, Boris was on the same side as myself and others.”
Farage revealed he had heard murmurs of discontent from “major conservative donors and supporters” who have vowed, “never to support the (Conservative) party again.” He said that Boris Johnson’s media presence and personality could be hugely influential in galvanizing vast swathes of a disenchanted electorate whose only options at the next election are the beleaguered governing Conservatives or the Labour party, two parties Farage believes are the same.
“So would there be a possibility of a new coming together on the centre-right? It would be Boris Johnson; other MPs would join in with this as well,” he hinted.
Asked whether conversations had occurred between himself and Johnson regarding such a project, Farage replied: “Not with him directly, no. But I have discussed it with people close to and around him.”
Farage has been a perennial thorn in the side of the Conservative Party, willingly adopting the role of chief disruptor on the British right. He had sought to keep the Tory party — which had had a tendency this century to roam towards a centrist, liberal agenda when unchallenged — in check via his leadership of UKIP, which was instrumental in delivering the Brexit referendum, and later on the pop-up Brexit Party which stormed to victory in the last-ever European parliamentary elections in Britain.
Boris Johnson took matters into his own hands late on Friday evening, opting to resign from parliament rather than be further subjected to what he described as a “witch-hunt” investigation into allegations he misled parliament over the media-fueled Partygate scandal during the coronavirus pandemic.
