Nigel Farage claims allies of Boris Johnson offered eight peerages to Brexit party supporters, in a desperate last-minute attempt to persuade the Eurosceptic group not to field parliamentary candidates at the election in key Labour seats.
The Brexit party leader said Britain was becoming “like Venezuela” and that figures “deep inside Downing Street” had launched an extraordinary bid to persuade his group to stand down its candidates to avoid splitting the Leave vote.
Mr Johnson is targeting Labour seats in the north of England and the Midlands to try to secure a House of Commons majority for the Conservatives at the December 12 election.
But Mr Farage is insisting on fielding Brexit party candidates in these seats, in a move that could enable Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to hold on to the constituencies.
Mr Farage said on Thursday that he had turned down repeated offers of a place in the House of Lords by Tories he has not named, and that a Downing Street operation had then tried to dangle peerages in front of other “senior figures” in the Brexit party.
“It was suggested that eight of them could go to the House of Lords,” Mr Farage said in a video. “All they had to do was come to Nigel and convince him to stand down in a whole load more marginal seats.”
In a tweet, Mr Farage claimed the prime minister’s chief of staff Edward Lister had called Brexit party candidates to offer them “jobs” if they did not stand in seats that are Tory targets.
Conservative party officials denied the allegation as “typical Farage attention seeking”.
A Tory spokesman said: “Neither the Conservative party, nor its officials have offered Brexit party candidates jobs or peerages.”
Mr Farage told the Daily Telegraph he expected the police could be asked to investigate.
“The offer of peerages for material return is clearly an offence,” he said. “And I think this may unravel over the next couple of days.”
In a significant boost for Mr Johnson, Mr Farage announced on Monday that the Brexit party would not field candidates in the 317 seats won by the Tories at the 2017 election.
But Mr Farage has been under pressure to go further and not contest key Labour constituencies, amid warnings from some of his supporters as well as Tories that he risks losing Brexit if Mr Johnson does not secure a Commons majority.
As the deadline for parliamentary candidates to submit their nomination papers expired on Thursday, it was clear that Mr Farage had largely succeeded in his promise to contest Labour constituencies.
However, several Brexit party candidates announced they would not fight the election.
Rupert Lowe said was standing down as the Brexit party candidate for Dudley North, the second most marginal Labour seat in England.
Mr Lowe, who is already an MEP, said in a statement that he was putting “country before party”, because of the risk that by splitting the Leave vote he would allow Labour candidate Melanie Dudley to be elected.
Andy Wood, the Brexit party parliamentary candidate for Hove, also said he had decided to stand down.
Mr Farage told Sky News: “Today, every single one of the Brexit party candidates has come under intimidation. Thousands of phone calls, emails.”
But he said he would refuse to accede to calls to stand down candidates in Labour seats.
Mr Farage told activists at a Brexit party rally in Hull: “There is a full-scale attempt going on as I speak to stop men and women freely putting themselves up before the UK electorate. You would have thought this was Venezuela — even before Jeremy Corbyn got in.”
