It is just under two weeks until the European elections and Nigel Farage has said he does “not particularly” want to be prime minister. A poll released overnight revealed The Brexit Party has a solid lead in the polls for the vote and another showed it was ahead of the Conservative Party in a general election survey.
Nigel Farage ahead in the polls
Against this backdrop, Farage was the main guest on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. An interview he complained was “ludicrous” because the BBC presenter quizzed him about things he has said out loud. The combative exchange either exposed Farage’s hypocrisy or enhanced his position as the insurgent outsider - depending on who you listen to.
He used the appearance to push the case for a no-deal Brexit. “I was the one that coined the phrase ‘no-deal is better than a bad deal’,” Farage claimed. Although Marr said his team could find no evidence of the former Ukip leader ever having said it on camera.
Farage added: “The only way we can deliver the democratic will of the people is to leave on WTO terms and I’ll tell you something, once we do that, the EU will be banging our door down to have a sensible tariff-free deal.
The veteran MEP said leaving without a deal would cause “some short-term economic disruption” but it would be worth it. “Moving house leads to short-term disruption, this is our future.”
The elections, he said, were about wether British people live “in a democratic country or don’t we”.
Farage, who was also asked to explain why he now opposed a second referendum even though has has before suggested one could be necessary, said he was “mentally preparing myself” for another public vote. “I’m thinking we may well have it forced upon us,” he said”
“If we had a second referendum, I think Leave would win by a bigger margin,” he predicted.
Conservatives in hiding and on course for one
Damian Hinds, the education secretary, had the job of explaining why people should vote Tory even though the party has not formally launched a campaign and, like The Brexit Party, does not appear to be publishing a manifesto.
“I’m not sure we need a launch,” he told Marr. “We have been very clear about the outcome we want.”
“We don’t actually want MEPs to take up their seats – we want people to vote Conservative but we don’t want them to have to take their seats.”
Hinds said the elections would be the “ultimate protest vote” by people unhappy with the two main parties. And in a line that might not be too helpful for the prime minister given how well Farage’s no-deal platform is polling, added: “In a sense, for some people, this is the second referendum.”
Over on BBC Radio 5′s Pienaar’s Politics, prisons minister Robert Buckland said he expected a general election “would probably have to happen” if the choice came down to not leaving the EU or a no-deal Brexit.
“My personal view is if you’re going to go down the line of revocation you need a democratic event in order to confirm that. Why? Because both the Labour and Conservative MPs were elected on a manifesto to deliver Brexit,” he said.
Asked to choose between a referendum or an election, he said: “I think the idea of another referendum fills me with absolute horror. It does not solve any problem.”
Labour: When is a Brexit party not a Brexit party?
What Labour’s actual position is on Brexit was exposed again this morning as Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth and Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner took turns on the morning whos.
Ashworth said voters should back Labour to see off Farage. “Be in no doubt, if you want to stop Nigel Farage in these elections vote Labour,” he told Marr. “The Lib Dems and Change UK cannot stop the Brexit Party getting MEPs in regions – it’s a two-horse race now between Labour and the Brexit Party.”
Ashworth rejected the suggestion Labour supported Brexit. “No, no, no – we’re not a Brexit party,” he told Marr. Despite the party’s policy being to prioritise leaving the EU with a deal over holding a second referendum.
“If you want soup and that’s what you’re trying to get, that’s what you can go for, if you can’t get soup you can get salad instead,” Ashworth explained the party’s list of options, deploying a lunch analogy first put to him by Marr. Pretty thin gruel for Remainers.
As for those cross-party talks on securing a deal? “They’re not getting very far,” Ashworth said.
Speaking to Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday earlier in the day, Gardiner said Labour was “trying to bail out the country because of the Tories’ failure”. He said: “We believe it’s important that as a country we respect the promises that we made and the democratic decision of the people.”
On the Brexit talks with the Conservative Party, he said: “Now I don’t know whether this deal is going to work.”
“We don’t know at this stage even if we could negotiate a deal, what we don’t know is whether the successor to Theresa May would actually deliver on it and that’s one of the big sticking points that we have,” he told Sky.
Tony Blair also made another, rare, intervention this morning. He told Ridge that Labour voters should vote for a ‘Remain’ party if they think they “cannot vote for Labour”.
“At the end of this there’s going to be a totting up. It’s important that the ‘Remain’ side comes out because MPs will be making decisions based on that.”
Blair added it was “important the anti-Brexit side is larger and stronger than the Farage side”.