Brexit Party shifts vote tactics, won’t challenge Conservatives

HARTLEPOOL, England — Brexit Party chief Nigel Farage changed course Monday, announcing that his party would not challenge Conservative candidates in nearly half of the U.K.’s districts, a tactical move that may make it easier for pro-Brexit forces to prevail in the Dec. 12 election.

Farage said his party will not put forward candidates in any seats that the Conservatives won in the last election so as not to split the pro-Brexit vote. The move should boost the chances that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives

win a majority in an early election that Johnson sought to increase his Brexit mandate.

A Conservative majority would likely mean that Johnson’s Brexit divorce deal would be passed by Parliament, clearing the way for Britain to leave the European Union at the end of January.

Farage said he was putting country before party by unilaterally forming a “leave alliance” with the Conservatives at the expense of parties seeking to slow or even stop Brexit. Those parties include the opposition Labour Party, the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party.

All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs in the election. Right now the governing Conservatives have 298 seats and Labour has 243.

Monday’s move represented a substantial change in tactics; last week Farage threatened to run against the Conservatives in every seat in England, Wales and Scotland unless they teamed up with his Brexit Party. Johnson refused the offer, which included a demand that he drop his Brexit divorce deal.