In all the Mueller Report reverberations, you may have missed news from across the pond that UKIP founder Nigel Farage just started an new political party:
That Britain, whose voters chose to leave the EU in 2016, will partake in the European Parliament elections next month is frankly absurd. Britain was supposed to have left the bloc already (Brexit day was scheduled for March 31, was extended to mid-April, and was extended again to October 31). And elected British MEPs — presuming that Brexit still happens — would have to vacate their seats almost immediately.
This is yet another source of voter frustration. And Nigel Farage, the former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader, has seized it as an opportunity to gain support for his “Brexit party,” launched April 12. According to a YouGov poll, the Brexit party is leading with 27 percent of the vote. Labour is at 22 percent and the Conservatives are trailing behind at 15 percent.
This is bad news for the Conservative party who are — at least ostensibly — the Brexit party. Around 70 percent of Conservative constituencies voted Leave in the 2017 election, and it has been the task of the Conservative government for the past two years to deliver this result. But they haven’t. Failure after failure, broken promise after broken promise; an entirely self-inflicted crisis of trust is upon them, and the gulf between Parliament and ordinary voters is ever widening. The worry now is that the Tories might bleed Euro-skeptics to Farage’s single-issue party.
This is also a concern for the Labour party since 60 percent of its constituencies also voted Leave. So far, the Labour party has gotten away with a deliberately ambiguous line on Brexit. But in future elections, they’ll need to step up.
The Brexit Prty has already signed up 60,000 dues paying members in nine days. They also have 14 Members of European Parliament, most ex-UKIP.
At least some in the Labour Party seem to be taking the Brexit Party seriously:
Lord Glasman said the Brexit Party would “capture the rage of people who feel like their democratic vote had been disregarded”.
Issuing the warning at a panel organised by Labour Leave, he urged the party not to “sneer” at people who voted to quit the bloc.
Support for Brexit in working class areas was “robust and not moving”, he believed.
“People see this clearly for what it is which is a refusal of the ruling class to accept their vote,” said the peer.
“If Labour can’t lead the democratic possibility of this then people will swing to the right.
If both Labour and Tories see the Brexit Party as a threat, there’s an easy way to get rid of it: Keep their promise to voters, respect the results of the referendum, and withdraw the UK from the EU. It’s the endless dishonest shirking of the inevitable that’s driving voter contempt of Britain’s ruling class. Brexit and be done with it, or face the prospect of being replaced.
Tags: Brexit, Brexit Party, EU, Nigel Farage, UKIP