UK: Brexit Party urges Tories for election alliance

LONDON

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage urged the ruling Conservative Party to enter an alliance in the upcoming Dec. 12 election.

In his election campaign launch, Farage underlined that an alliance would unite Leave votes against the Labour Party.

He said bringing the parties together was "the only way" forward and that if this offer was turned down, the Brexit Party would name candidates in "every single seat" in England, Scotland and Wales.

Farage’s remarks came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for such an alliance in a radio talk show with the Brexit Party leader.

"I would like to see you [Farage] and Boris get together because you would really have some numbers, because you did fantastically in the election, the last election," Trump told Farage on the LBC show on Thursday.

Farage, a staunch Brexiteer and former leader of the far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP), launched the populist Brexit Party in April 2019.

The party received 31.6% of the votes to become the first party in European Parliament election in May, leaving Conservatives and Labour behind. Pro-EU Liberal Democrats came second with 20.3% in the same election.

Talking about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Trump said: "Corbyn would be so bad for your country, he'd be so bad, he'd take you on such a bad way. He'd take you into such bad places."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn reacted to Trump’s remarks, describing them an "intervention" into British politics.

The Conservative Party has yet to responded to alliance calls from Farage. However, party sources say it is out of question as the latest polls show Tories with a clear lead.

The U.K. parliament decided to hold early general elections on Dec. 12 after a new extension to the Brexit deadline was granted by the EU.

Johnson, who had insisted that the U.K. would leave the EU on Oct. 31, was forced by the parliament to request a new extension after failing to secure a timetable which was needed to legislate his revised Brexit deal.

The U.K. had decided to leave the union in a 2016 referendum.