MPs will be fearful if Brexit Party tops European election, Farage claims

If the Brexit Party comes out top in the European election, it will leave many Labour and Tory MPs fearful for their Commons seats, leader Nigel Farage said.

Mr Farage was speaking as he toured the centre of Lincoln, talking to voters and market stall holders.

Asked what a Brexit Party victory would mean, he said: “It puts a No Deal Brexit back on the table.

“Parliament has taken it off the table. Our voters say ‘put it back on the table’ and, if we win, we will demand representation, with the Government, at the next stage of negotiations.

“We have deadline now of October 31 and we want to make sure, our voters want to make sure, that, actually, No Deal is being seriously thought-about.”

Mr Farage said: “If Brexit’s not been delivered, lets have an Autumn general election.”

And he said that a victory later this month would give his fledgling party a major boost for a forthcoming national poll.

He said: “There’ll be huge number of Labour and Tories MPs fearful as to whether they can hold on to their seats. That might just concentrate their minds.

“But the real question is, of those that vote for us in a European election, how many would repeat that in a general election.

“And the indications I’m getting, is an awful lot of them.

“And that would mean we’d be at the level where the Brexit Party could start to win serious numbers of seats.”

Mr Farage spent more than an hour on his city centre walkabout with other Brexit Party candidates, including Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of the high-profile Tory Brexiteer, Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The former Ukip leader was tempted to try vaping at an e-cigarette store.

After he few puffs of Pinkman – described as a “mouthwatering fruit explosion” – he declared that he was not ready to give up the fags.

He said: “It’s not bad.”

But then, after a few coughs, added: “I’m nearly there but I’m not there yet.”

Later, one young man asked Mr Farage to sign a homemade portrait of the Brexit Party leader.

Ms Rees-Mogg said she has been gaining friends among Conservative members, rather than losing them, since deciding to defect to the Brexit Party.

Asked about her relationship with the Tories, including her brother, she said: “My brother and I do talk about things. He knows that my views are extremely strong and I’ve been committed to being a eurosceptic for decades.

“And he knew I wouldn’t change my mind on the best way to proceed.

“However, amongst Tory Party membership, I’m not losing friends, I’m gaining them.

“They’re coming with me.

“Because they know they’ve been abandoned by their party, as have Labour people, who haven’t delivered on their manifesto either.”

Ms Rees-Mogg said: “I’ve been a Conservative Party member for 35 years and the party abandoned its supporters, it abandoned its voters because it promised in its manifesto in 2017 that it would deliver Brexit by March 29. That didn’t happen.

“It promised Brexit meant Brexit. That didn’t happen. It promised no deal was better than a bad deal.

“Theresa May brought back an appallingly bad dead and thinks we’ll accept it. We can’t. It’s about democracy.”