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BREXIT PARTY mouthpiece Nigel Farage declared today that more than 300 Tory candidates will be given a free run in the December 12 general election.
He abandoned his previous commitment to standing Brexit candidates in 600 British constituencies; his party will not oppose 317 Tory MPs elected in 2017.
Candidates from the Brexit Party will still stand in every Labour-held seat.
Labour shadow education secretary Angela Rayner tweeted: “Nigel Farage has bottled it and now morphed into the hard-right Tory Party. Like the Prime Minister, the Brexit Party is all full of bluff and bluster.
“On one hand Farage says the PM’s deal is no good, but then says his party won’t stand against the Tories. The Brexit Party is now the proxy Tory Party.”
Communist Party of Britain general secretary Rob Griffiths said: “It is entirely in keeping with Nigel Farage’s right-wing political history that he wants the Tories to win the general election.
“But his decision also exposes the vulnerability of Labour’s move towards an anti-Brexit position, having dropped its pledge to honour the EU referendum result and adopted a second referendum instead.
“Only a Labour government with its left and progressive policies will end austerity and privatisation, although it would quickly discover that EU rules on competition, state aid, public procurement, the corporate right of establishment and the free movement of capital will be used in attempts to sabotage Labour’s programme.”
Mr Farage said he took the decision because he feared that standing anti-Tory candidates could have led to a hung parliament with significant gains for the Liberal Democrats.
Hope Not Hate campaign director Matthew McGregor said: “There is a real threat that Nigel Farage could win a handful of seats and become a kingmaker in the next parliament.
“We will redouble our efforts to tell voters about what makes Nigel Farage unpopular in the seats he is targeting: his dangerous and divisive politics and his support for Thatcherite policies like privatising the NHS and cutting taxes for millionaires.”
