Nigel Farage versus the world: How the Brexit Party was born

When Nigel Farage initiated the Brexit Party in 2019, he was satisfied nearly all of Britons needed to see a very new sort of political celebration taking up Labour and the Conservatives. But the method of beginning a celebration from scratch was removed from simple. In reality it was a battlefield.

“The fake websites and billboards, the attempted stings, the campaign the Electoral Commission waged against us, the difficulties of getting a bank account and the banks’ fear of ‘reputational damage’ are pretty shocking,” Farage claims in a brand new ebook. “And that’s without the behaviour of the Tories.”

The Brexit Party gave voters an actual alternative on the poll field. When each mainstream political celebration was dragging its ft over leaving the European Union or outright opposing it, Farage’s new celebration stated it will get it finished and dusted.

If anybody needed to hold on sticking two fingers up on the Establishment, this was the electoral automobile for them.

The inside story of the characters who made all of it occur is now revealed in a ebook known as The Art of the Impossible: How to Start a Political Party, by Andrew Reid, a UKIP veteran, solicitor and former decide.

The Brexit Party had a deadline – it needed to be a viable, voteable celebration by the European elections on May, 23, 2019.

Since the referendum vote in 2016, the parliamentary course of to depart the European Union had taken so lengthy that the following EU elections, which many hoped would by no means must be fought, had come round once more and Farage knew it was the very best alternative to reiterate the British will to depart.

But the method of organising a brand new celebration – a successor to UKIP – encountered all the same old hindrances confronted by any type of insurgents on this nation.

Funnily sufficient for Farage, it was the banks that proved most obstructive, refusing, he claims, to financial institution their supporters’ donations – years earlier than his present bother with Coutts. Not solely that however he suggests the Electoral Commission – the official physique for recognising a brand new celebration – waged a marketing campaign towards them. According to Reid, they took far longer to take care of the only of duties that, for the pro-Remain celebration Change UK, they accomplished far more shortly.

Reid, who wrote this new ebook with Simon Carr, was the person Farage selected to assist organise this new group.

He additionally occurs to be an expert racehorse coach which will need to have given him and eager gambler Farage lots to speak about.

Like the remainder of the 17 million Britons who voted Leave two years earlier, they had been appalled by the conceited backsliding carried on by then Prime Minister Theresa May. After her dismal election efficiency in 2017, Farage and Reid feared Britain would get “Brexit in name only” or, worse, a second referendum. They needed to placed on a great displaying in the one election that allowed a brand new celebration to compete pretty with the two-party dominance.

Reid had nice religion in Farage, seeing him at “Leave Means Leave” rallies throughout the nation in autumn 2018, testing the urge for food of his “People’s Army” for re-entering the Brexit fray. “His voice fills a hall,” writes Reid. “There isn’t a better voice in British politics, with its gravelly edge and its full bass register.

“It’s a parade ground voice with authority – a sense of command.”

Once Farage had lastly determined to guide the Brexit Party in January 2019, it was as much as Reid to drag the workforce collectively. He had solely 5 months to do it.

Not solely was it a rush, however the stage of animosity levelled on the celebration by Remainer opponents was appalling.

“Brexit was not for the faint-hearted,” recollects Reid. “They didn’t just throw milkshakes, they shut down meetings, picketed our venues, chained themselves to chairs, harassed families, hounded people out of jobs, attacked businesses with fake reviews, scared off customers, organised boycotts. Brexit wasn’t for those who had something to lose.”

Democracy simply doesn’t occur in Britain – it needs to be fought for.

With Reid and his workforce fixing the complicated particulars of beginning a celebration, they nonetheless hadn’t had their breakthrough second.

Was there actually a public viewers?

That second got here in February 2019 when their web site went stay. The response was quick with supporters signing up and pledging cash too.

“By the end of the week we had 100,000 registrations,” recollects Reid. “In seven days we were pushing Conservative Party numbers in terms of registered supporters.”

Farage provides: “We took off like a rocket.”

The Electoral Commission couldn’t fairly imagine the cascade of contributions and steered it was Russian “financial bots”, so starting one of the vital egregious slurs towards Farage and the Brexit Party.

As Theresa May and Speaker John Bercow strung out Brexit negotiations, it grew to become evident the scheduled European elections can be held and there was a sudden scramble for election candidates, Reid claims.

He feared there can be an upsurge of UKIP unsuitables, together with one man who believed that voting ought to solely start on the age of fifty. One candidate had bare images of him in circulation, displaying him lined in vomit after a consuming session, however on nearer examination it was discovered to not disqualify him from choice.

Several high-profile candidates had been added to the roster, with the Daily Express’s Anne Widdecombe contacting the celebration simply earlier than the deadline. The head of candidates dashed down to satisfy her off a cruise ship at Southampton and the required signed papers made the deadline in time.

Attacks on the Brexit Party ranged from the trivial however annoying – resembling celebration stamped-addressed envelopes getting used to return bricks – to the severely poisonous.

Just days earlier than the European elections the Electoral Commission was prompted by former Labour PM Gordon Brown to announce an investigation of the Brexit Party’s smaller donations, particularly ones deemed to return from overseas.

Unsurprisingly, the story was picked up by the BBC, with Nick Robinson asking: “Is it true you’re taking money in all currencies, including Russian?”

Two years after the allegations, the Electoral Commission lastly declared: “We hold no evidence that any political party is being financed, in whole or part, by bots making multiple donations, or any donations at all.”

A bit late, however the Brexit Party needn’t have frightened. The eventual outcomes had been an amazing success. Winning 29 seats, virtually twice as many as their nearest rivals, the Remainer Lib-Dems, the Brexit Party had turn into the most important single nationwide celebration within the European Parliament.

The Tories had been humiliated, successful solely 4 seats out of the 73 up for grabs.

Confidence collapsed in Theresa May’s premiership and she or he resigned, leaving the trail open for a management contest which Brexiteer Boris Johnson gained.

An opportunity to see if the Brexit Party’s muscle prolonged into British parliamentary elections got here with a Peterborough by-election. Labour scraped in with the Brexit Party coming a powerful second, splitting the anti-Labour vote.

The message was clear: the Tories needed to take care of the Brexit Party.

But Boris held agency that he wouldn’t stand down Tories in Red Wall seats the place the Brexit Party stood a greater likelihood.

At one level this ebook alleges that a number of Brexit Party members had been supplied outstanding roles within the Tory celebration – an unlawful act.

Ten peerages and a knighthood had been reportedly supplied. Ann Widdecombe was supplied a spot on the Government’s Brexit negotiation workforce. Reid states within the ebook that Farage was apoplectic with fury and rejected all presents.

Eventually Farage had the troublesome choice of standing down his personal candidates in an effort to guarantee Boris Johnson’s super Get Brexit Done election victory. Both Reid and Farage now remorse their choice however declare that they had little alternative on the time, fearing they’d let in an anti-Brexit celebration.

But it leaves a bitter style, particularly after their heroic European election success.

Reid’s ebook underlines Farage’s means as a campaigner.

Despite having no elected MPs within the UK parliament, it was doubtless Farage and his Brexiteers who ensured Britain lastly left the EU.

So would he ever be tempted again into the political enviornment?

At the top of his introduction to this ebook, Farage hints, “more important than anything is the government’s commitment to Net Zero. It’s as big as Brexit. It will limit the prospects of this country for 50 years if we don’t get it right.”

But, as this meticulous and pacy ebook makes clear, any try to problem the Establishment is a tough and unforgiving path – and never for the faint-hearted.

• Tim Newark is creator of Protest Vote: How Politicians Lost The Plot (Gibson Square, £8.99). The Art Of The Impossible: The Inside Story of the Brexit Party by Andrew Reid with Simon Carr (Biteback Publishing, £12.99) is out now.