Four Brexit Party MEPs are set to QUIT and urge voters to back Boris Johnson

Four Brexit Party MEPs including Annunziata Rees-Mogg are set to QUIT and urge voters to back Boris Johnson as Nigel Farage faces huge revolt

  • Four Brexit Party MEPs are set to quit this morning and urge voters to back Tories
  • John Longworth and Annunziata Rees-Mogg are among the group resigning
  • Move comes just a week before election and as Nigel Farage faces BBC grilling 

Nigel Farage voiced fury today as he faced a Brexit Party mutiny today with four MEPs set to quit and urge voters to back Boris Johnson at the election.

The dramatic resignations are set to be announced with just a week to go before polling day – and just before Mr Farage records a high-profile interview with the BBC‘s Andrew Neil. 

Party sources told MailOnline they expected John Longworth, the former British Chambers of Commerce chief, to deliver the blow alongside Annunziata Rees-Mogg.

Lance Forman and Lucy Harris are also set to resign, although all four will continue to sit as independent MEPs. Mr Longworth had the whip removed yesterday for allegedly voting in favour of Mr Johnson’s divorce package in the European Parliament. 

Mr Farage said he was ‘disappointed’ and dismissed the idea that the Brexit Party was risking a Jeremy Corbyn government. A spokesman also pointed to close ties between the rebels and senior Tories – including Ms Rees-Mogg’s brother Jacob.   

The news will fuel fears of a complete meltdown, with deep splits over whether to go all-out against the Tories on December 12 or endorse the PM’s deal with the EU. 

Nigel Farage is facing a Brexit Party mutiny today with four MEPs set to quit and urge voters to back Boris Johnson at the election

Party sources told MailOnline they expected John Longworth, the former British Chambers of Commerce chief, to deliver the blow alongside Annunziata Rees-Mogg (pictured)

Mr Longworth had the whip removed yesterday for allegedly voting in favour of Mr Johnson’s divorce package in the European Parliament

Brexit Party sources told MailOnline they expected John Longworth (right), the former British Chambers of Commerce chief, to deliver the blow alongside Annunziata Rees-Mogg (left)

Mr Farage said: ‘We are disappointed that four of our MEPs don’t seem to understand that we both saved the Conservative party from large scale losses to the Liberal Democrats in the South and South West of England but we are also hammering the Labour Leave vote in its traditional heartlands making it much easier for the Conservatives to win many of those seats. 

‘The only vote on the Leave side that is currently being split is in areas such as Barnsley, the South Wales Valleys, Doncaster and Hartlepool where there is a risk that the Tories will split our vote.’  

A Brexit Party spokesman added: ‘We also note that one of the MEPs is the sister of a Cabinet Minister, another has a partner who works in the office of the same Cabinet Minister and yet another is a personal friend of both Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. 

‘In the case of John Longworth, who was for years the firmest advocate of WTO withdrawal that we have ever met, he underwent a metamorphosis into being a supporter of the new EU treaty following two days of meetings in London.’

Mr Johnson today renewed his commitment to get Brexit done, saying he would stick to the January 31 departure date and the transition period will not last beyond 2020. 

The Brexit Party opposes the deal in principle and has ordered all MEPs to vote against it, claiming it is not ‘real Brexit’.

Mr Longworth is a member of a committee which was yesterday ordered to vote in secret in the European Parliament in Brussels.

But he has refused to say which way he cast his ballot on the issue. 

Mr Farage dramatically pulled candidates from more than 300 seats that were won by the Conservatives in 2017, saying he did not want to split the Eurosceptic vote and hand victory to Labour.

But he insisted the party will still fight Labour constituencies, arguing they are best placed to win in Leave-leaning Northern heartlands.     

Mr Johnson (pictured on ITV's Peston last night) has renewed his commitment to get Brexit done, saying he would stick to the January 31 departure date and the transition period will not last beyond 2020

Mr Johnson (pictured on ITV’s Peston last night) has renewed his commitment to get Brexit done, saying he would stick to the January 31 departure date and the transition period will not last beyond 2020