Javid fails to rule out pact with Farage FIVE times
SAJID Javid has failed to rule out a Tory pact with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party at the next election.
The Chancellor said the Conservative Party did not need electoral alliances to win.
But on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show he refused five chances to explicitly rule out a pact.
Mr Javid claimed the government had a plan to deliver Brexit without Mr Farage’s help – but claimed it would be madness to talk about it on television.
‘There are actually new ideas,’ he insisted. ‘Anyone who understands how negotiation works knows you would not discuss those in public and put those in the public domain.
‘i am absolutely clear that we are working wholeheartedly, straining every sinew, to get a new deal and the Prime Minister is personally putting in all the significant effort you would expect.
‘i do know there is a proposal and it would be madness to start talking about that in public.’ Mr Farage has asked the Tories to stand aside in labour seats in the North in return for an agreement that the Brexit Party will not stand against pro-leave Tories.
Many Conservatives favour such an alliance, because they fear labour could sneak through the middle in many seats if both Tory and Brexit Party candidates stand.
Mr Javid said: ‘We absolutely now need an election. it is being forced on us because Parliament is trying to kneecap these negotiations.’
He was asked five times to rule out a pact with the Brexit Party, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson is believed to have privately ruled out. Mr Javid said: ‘We don’t need an electoral alliance with anyone. We can stand on our own two feet, put our message across.
‘The picture our opponents are painting of us, of course they would paint a false picture. We are a proud centre-Right, moderate, one-nation party.
‘There is nothing extremist about wanting to meet the will of the British people on a simple question which was “Do you want to leave the eU or not?”. We are not in an election yet. i am clear we do not need an alliance with anyone.’
Mr Farage has publicly offered a non-aggression pact between the two parties, citing the Conservatives’ substantial losses in the 2019 european Parliament elections.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said the offer was ‘100 per cent sincere’, adding: ‘Johnson should cast his mind back to the european elections in May, in which his party came fifth, and ask himself: does he want the Tories to find themselves in a similarly disastrous position when the results of the next general election come in, or does he want to sign a nonaggression pact with me and return to Downing Street?’
Mr Javid’s refusal to preclude a pact was criticised by the opposition. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said: ‘The Tories are refusing to rule out a grubby deal with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party because they know he supports all their cuts to public services and the sell-off of our NHS to Donald Trump.’
expelled Tory MP Sam gyimah told Radio 5 live: ‘i know there is a serious level of disquiet about what the government is doing, not just in terms of No Deal but an explicit attempt to purge the Conservative Party of moderate MPs because they see that as the way to steal the Brexit Party votes from underneath Nigel Farage.
‘if the Conservative Party can become more like the Brexit Party, then they hope to be able to get his votes without a pact.’