By announcing that he would not run for office in order to support his party's candidates, Nigel Farage risks dividing the pro-Brexit vote.
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After seven failed attempts to win a Westminster MP, Nigel Farage could make people smile. The former UKIP chairman, who became the leader of the Brexit Party (BP), announced on Sunday (November 3rd) that he was giving up his eighth time, he said, to be able to focus more on "600 candidates" he intends to line up everywhere "In England, Wales and Scotland", in view of the December 12 general election.
But the posturing of the boss of the BP does not play at all on the side of the conservatives. Because they could cost them this absolute majority, lost by Theresa May in the general elections of June 2017 and they intend to win back. It is for this purpose that Boris Johnson won the early elections in the middle of December.
"I really thought about it a lot. Do I find myself riding to try to enter Parliament or can I better serve the cause by crisscrossing the UK to support 600 candidates? (from the BP) ? I decided that the second option was the right one, " assured Mr. Farage, 55, on the BBC set. Would the long-time Brexit promoter find it hard to give up the post of MEP he has held for twenty years, despite the fact that he is spewing the European Union (EU) as soon as he arrives in Strasbourg?
"This is the only way to get Brexit"
The British parliamentary elections obeying a first-past-the-post voting system (the elected member of a constituency is the one who gets the most votes), the BP has almost no chance of sending elected representatives to the House of Commons. According to a YouGov survey published in the Sunday Times Sunday, he is only credited with 7% of votes, against 12% before the announcement of the election campaign. However, with 13% of the vote in the 2015 general election, the UKIP – of which Mr Farage was a founding member – was second in 120 constituencies, but nowhere.
The electoral message of the conservative camp is clear: Boris Johnson, thanks to his agreement negotiated mid-October with Brussels, is the only one able to bring Brexit to a quick conclusion because this agreement " is ready "said the prime minister on Sunday in an interview with Sky News. Finally, to be able to move to the real concerns of the British: the preservation of their public health system, security, etc.
