Nigel Farage has caved in and withdrawn Brexit Party candidates from every Tory seat in the country.
This means Boris Johnson has a clear run do defend all 317 Conservative constituencies without challenge from Farage’s band.
The Brexit Party leader said this decision would create a “leave alliance”.
And it could boost the Tories’ chances of clinging to power and passing their Brexit deal. Some bookies today cut the odds of a Conservative majority after the general election.
But Farage has slammed Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal on many occasions. That’s the same deal he now seems ready to accept for the sake of his “leave alliance”.
Here are the times he has previously slagged off Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal…
When he likened the deal to mouldy cheese
Farage said: “The Withdrawal Agreement is rather like a piece of cheese that you take out of the fridge and leave on the side.”
This jibe came after Boris Johnson offered MPs more time to debate his Withdrawal Agreement Bill in return for a December 12 election.
Mr Farage continued to say the reason Parliament was sitting on a Saturday, for the first time in 37 years, was so that the Prime Minister could “bounce (the deal) through before anyone had read it”.
(Image: Ian Forsyth)
When he said the deal was “not Brexit”
Farage has also repeatedly criticised Mr Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement on Twitter .
He wrote: “If @BorisJohnson really believes that he has a great deal, let’s have a debate on it. Because I have read it — it’s not Brexit and it will not stand up to scrutiny.”
Later the same day he joked about Mr Johnson’s decision not to drink alcohol again until Britain is out the EU.
Farage said the opposite: “I won’t be giving up the booze until Brexit is done.”
(Image: Ian Forsyth)
When he described it as “re-heating” Theresa May’s doomed deal
During a Brexit Party rally, Mr Farage claimed that Boris Johnson’s WAB was 95% the same as the one Theresa May saw voted down three times.
He also highlighted possible issues surrounding the border in Northern Ireland, continued payments to the EU and commitments to the Eurozone.
He said: “This is a re-heating of Mrs May’s deal.”
(Image: Ian Forsyth)
When he said he’d rather delay Brexit than accept the deal
Farage, arguably the face of No-Deal, said to Sky News in mid October that he’d prefer an extension than to support Mr Johnson’s deal.
He said: “I would much rather we had an extension and a chance of a general election than accept this dreadful new EU treaty.”
When he called it the “second worst ‘deal’ in history”
Farage posted a video of himself giving a campaign speech on Twitter.
He accompanied it with the caption: “This is why Boris Johnson’s new treaty is the second worst ‘deal’ in history.”
This is obviously a reference to Mrs May’s deal that failed to get past MPs on three occasions.
So what’s changed, Nigel?
