Nigel Farage has urged Leave-supporting voters in Labour heartlands ‘vote tactically’ and back his Brexit Party instead of the Conservatives.
Mr Farage, who intends to spoil his own ballot paper, savaged Boris Johnson‘s ‘oven-ready’ Brexit deal and claimed it will give the UK ‘many long years of indigestion’ and ‘agony’.
Speaking at the Brexit Party’s final press conference before polls open on Thursday, Mr Farage said his party was ‘the challenger’ in many Labour-held seats.
He also took aim at Jeremy Corbyn as he claimed the Labour Party believes Leave voters in its northern heartlands are ‘morons’.
‘In seats like this we are the challenger and the difficulty is there is a split and it’s a split in the Leave vote because if people in those constituencies vote Conservative, they may well stop us from getting over the line and beating Labour,’ he said.
‘My appeal is to Leave voters in those constituencies that have been Labour forever – and will be Labour when you wake up on Friday morning – unless you use your vote tactically and sensibly.
‘And to Leavers in those seats I say ‘Leavers, don’t waste your vote.’
Nigel Farage held his final press conference of the general election campaign this morning
The leader of the Brexit Party said he was hoping to win enough MPs on polling day to form a ‘bridgehead’ in the House of Commons to pressure Boris Johnson to change his EU divorce deal
At the press conference Mr Farage rubbished Mr Johnson’s claim that he would ‘get Brexit done’, saying that the divorce deal would merely set the stage for years of protracted talks with Brussels.
He said his aim on election day is to create a ‘bridgehead’ of Brexit Party MPs to put pressure on Mr Johnson and to force him to change his deal.
Opinion polls suggest his party could struggle to win a single MP with a SavantaComRes survey published today putting Mr Farage’s new electoral vehicle on just three per cent.
But Mr Farage insisted this morning he believed ‘we are going to get some over the line’.
He said it was only the Brexit Party that could beat Labour in many seats in the Midlands, south Wales and the north of England.
Mr Farage said he would continue to campaign for a ‘clean break’ No Deal Brexit from the EU as he renewed his criticism of Mr Johnson’s divorce accord.
Mr Johnson has repeatedly described his deal as ‘oven-ready’ and has pledged to make progress before Christmas on getting it agreed if he wins a majority this week.
But Mr Farage said of passing the deal: ‘That will lead to many long years of indigestion because we will be trapped inside an international treaty, we have given Michel Barnier the upper hand.’
He added: ‘Get Brexit done – if it means the oven-ready deal – simply isn’t true.’
Mr Farage warned that if people believed ‘the last three years have been bad’ they would be nothing compared to what will come next if the PM’s deal is agreed.
‘As much as I want Brexit I don’t want Brexit sold out,’ he said as he claimed ratifying the deal would lead to ‘years of agony’.
He also predicted that passing the PM’s deal would prompt a massive campaign for the UK to rejoin the EU because Britain would be ‘accepting its laws, still paying the bills and having no say whatsoever in how those laws are made’.
Mr Farage claimed Labour believes Leave voters in its northern heartlands are ‘morons’ as he urged them to lend their vote to his party on December 12
It comes after Mr Farage revealed he will spoil his ballot paper at the general election because there is no Brexit Party candidate in his constituency and he refuses to vote for the Conservatives.
The Brexit Party is assisting Mr Johnson’s campaign by giving the Tories a clear run in the 317 seats which they won in 2017.
But party Mr Farage said he could not cast his ballot for the Conservatives, repeating his claim that Mr Johnson’s deal with Brussels was ‘not Brexit’.
‘I think you should vote, and spoiling your ballot paper is a form of voting,’ he declared in a BBC debate on Monday night.
During the debate, an audience member asked Mr Farage if he would support the Conservatives who have pledged to ‘get Brexit done’.
‘I think that the only reason he opposes the government’s deal is because he likes being on TV,’ the man said to laughter.
Asked by BBC moderator Emma Barnett if there was a Brexit Party candidate running in his constituency, Mr Farage said there was not.
He said: ‘I’m going to spoil my ballot paper. I think you should vote, and spoiling your ballot paper is a form of voting. I would never stay at home.’
A new SavantaComRes poll puts the Brexit Party on just three per cent with two days to go until polling day
Mr Farage added: ‘I wanted to believe Boris when he said they were going to go for a Canada-style trade deal.’
Ms Barnett challenged him as she said: ‘You can’t stomach voting for the Conservatives, the only party that you said is going to deliver Brexit?
‘If the leader of the Brexit Party can’t support Brexit, what is the point of the leader of the Brexit Party?’
Mr Farage replied: ‘Because it’s not Brexit. I repeat the point, Boris said he’d pass the oven-ready deal by Christmas.
‘If he does that, that is not Brexit. We’ll have years more wrangling, a crisis before next summer.
‘This is the Conservatives who, of course, over half the Cabinet voted Remain. They never wanted the Leave result to win, and they’re still, three-and-a-half years on, not giving us what we deserve.’