Nigel Farage launches the Brexit Party (Image - Youtube)
In front of a roaring crowd he said Britons were “lions being led by donkeys.”
During a patriotic speech that saw him tear into Theresa May’s Tory Government and die-hard Remainers for refusing to honour the result of the 2016 EU referendum, he said:
“I find myself standing here in my sixth European election campaign. “I shouldn't be here, you shouldn't be here, this shouldn't be happening, we should have left the European Union by now."He introduced four candidates who will be standing for the Brexit Party in the European elections on May 23rd, the star candidate being Annunziata Rees-Mogg the sister of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.
She told cheering supporters:
"I joined the Conservative Party in 1984 and this is not a decision I have made lightly - to leave a party for which I have fought at every election since 1987, from Maggie Thatcher through to Theresa May.
"I know which one I'd rather have representing us now."
The 40-year-old mother-of-one, blasted MPs, including her brother, saying:
"The politicians are not our masters - they are to do our bidding. We need to fight back to take back our democracy. It's as drastic as that. It is our fight and we must fight to win."
She said she had stuck with the Tories 'through thick and thin' but Brexit had been the last straw.
"But the point at which our Prime Minister will not listen, not only to her membership, but will not listen to the people of her country. I can't sit by and let her do it. We've got to rescue our democracy, we have got to show that the people of this country have a say in how we are run."
When Farage was asked about former Brexit Party leader Catherine Blaiklock, who quit after journalists revealed she had sent racist posts and re-tweeted those of far-right figures before joining the Brexit Party, he said she was 'an administrator'.
He said: "I set the party up, she was the administrator that got it set up."
UKIP leader, Gerard Batten hit out at Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party, suggesting that the former UKIP leader could have been leading UKIP into the European Parliament elections next month.
Nigel Farage left the party citing its 'obsession' with Tommy Robinson, but Gerard Batten instead suggested it was just "an excuse" for him to leave.
Speaking to Matt Frei on LBC, Batten said that had Nigel fought the leadership election in 2018 "he could have been leader now and leading UKIP into these elections."
"He didn't want to do that. What he wanted, was that if the elections came, he wanted to have a party where he's the leader, it doesn't have a national executive committee, doesn't have members but has subscribers."Mr Batten then said that he thought The Brexit Party was "not a real party", and criticised their method of deciding candidates.
"One week away from when EU elections may be formally declared, he's inviting people to become candidates," he said.
In the latest YouGov poll for The Times, before Farage launched the party yesterday, the Brexit Party were on 15% for the European Elections while UKIP were on 14%. The combined Brexit Party/UKIP voting intention of 29%, puts them in the lead.
However, it's inevitable that Farage's new party will split the Brexit vote and will cost UKIP a number of MEPs. Many UKIP members think Nigel Farage has started to lose all credibility and may have become part of the establishment.
But the important thing is that the combined vote of UKIP and the Brexit Party is more than the combined vote of all the other parties. Otherwise the result will be taken as an endorsement for Britain to remain in the EU.
Farage's new party will not be standing candidates in the local elections on May 2nd, only in the European elections.
