“Our two-party system simply doesn’t work any more,” he said at a rally in Nottingham, which voted to quit the EU. He predicted the party he now leads could provoke a peaceful political revolution and overthrow the Westminster establishment. Mr Farage reminded his audience that 83 per cent of Labour MPs are Remainers despite vast swathes of Labour-held areas and five million of the party’s supporters voting Leave, urging Brexit supporters among them to switch to him.
The former Ukip leader believes the European Parliament elections in May will be between the Brexit Party and a “Remainer” Labour Party, sources said.
In a barnstorming speech, Mr Farage attacked arch-Remainer Lord Adonis, a candidate for Labour in the European Parliament elections, for saying Brexiteers “should not vote for Labour”.
Mr Farage said “too little attention has been paid to splits in Labour” over leaving the EU.
“Labour MPs are saying to Labour voters ‘you are too thick, too stupid, you don’t know what you did’,” he said.
He also turned his fire on Remainer Tories, hailing Derbyshire Conservative councillors who have “gone on strike” and will not campaign for the party next month because Brexit has not been delivered. Mr Farage drew approving boos from the audience when he attacked Nottinghamshire MPs Ken Clarke and Anna Soubry.
He said former cabinet minister Mr Clarke had “at least been consistent” as a remainer, but criticised Ms Soubry for reneging on her promise to “respect the referendum result”. He said she was representative of the “disrespectful, undemocratic, completely unacceptable” betrayal of Brexit by MPs.
Mr Farage added: “We have not formed this party just to protest, just to stick two fingers up to the establishment on May 23, just to get our own back and tell them what we think of them. No, our ambitions are much, much higher than that. I think it’s obvious that our two-party system simply doesn’t work any more.
“I think it’s obvious that our two big parties serve nothing but their own interests.”
Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of Tory Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg, appeared at the rally, attended by around 700 activists, alongside Mr Farage.
She confirmed she will stand for the Brexit Party next month.
Speaking before the event, Ms Rees-Mogg, from Lincolnshire, said: “I will be standing in the East Midlands, where I live with my family, and fighting to represent the people of the East Midlands in order to ensure the Brexit they voted for is actually delivered.”
Calls for shake-up of electoral system
Leading figures on both sides of the Brexit divide are demanding changes to the electoral system so new parties stand a chance of breaking intoWestminster.
Angela Smith MP, who quit the Labour party to join the new Change UK party, will call in Parliament this week for the “first past the post” system to end and be replaced by proportional representation.
The Brexit Party’s Nigel Farage said: “Our electoral system is not fit for purpose.The whole system needs a radical transformation.”
The challenges facing a smaller party was shown in the 2015 general election. Ukip was backed by nearly 3.9 million people, winning 12.6 per cent of the vote, but it ended up with just one MP.
Ukip would have won 80 seats if the PR system was used, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) said.
Ms Smith, who represents Penistone and Stocksbridge, said: “It is vital political parties recognise the scale of the change needed. If we don’t there could be long-term damage to our democracy.”
Darren Hughes, of the ERS, said: “Now is the time to move to a truly representative, participatory politics, where every vote counts and people know their voice will be heard.”
