Nigel Farage claims more than 10 Tory MPs could join ‘insurgent’ campaign

The former Ukip leader said the ‘gap for another insurgency is actually bigger than it was 10 years ago’ and suggested some jittery Conservatives who fear losing their seats could join it

Nigel Farage claimed Tory MPs could defect for fear of losing their seats (

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Nigel Farage has claimed that more than 10 Tory MPs could jump ship to an insurgent right-wing campaign.

The former Ukip leader said the “gap for another insurgency is actually bigger than it was 10 years ago” and suggested some jittery Conservatives who fear losing their seats could join it.

Mr Farage claimed the number was “potentially double figures” but failed to give any details on what such a campaign might look like.

In the wake of Boris Johnson’s shock departure as an MP, Mr Farage said it was “the end of Boris Johnson in the Conservative Party” and questioned whether the ex-PM would be happy on the “after dinner speaking circuit”.

The intervention comes despite Mr Farage recently saying he regretted helping Mr Johnson to win a landslide victory in 2019 by pulling Brexit Party candidates from the 317 seats the Conservatives won at the 2017 election.

Boris Johnson stood down as an MP on Friday with a furious blast at the Privileges Committee and Rishi Sunak (

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Getty Images)

Mr Johnson had ignored the-then Brexit Party leader’s plea for a ‘Leave Alliance’.

Mr Farage, who was a key player in Britain’s departure from the EU, also sensationally admitted last month that Brexit had “failed”.

Today, he sought to insert himself into the toxic fallout following Mr Johnson’s departure from Parliament.

“I think all this talk of ‘oh, he’ll go for this seat or that seat’, well, hang on, he’s virtually just gifted Uxbridge to the Labour Party, there’s no way he’s going to be given a seat, if he really wants to be in politics he is going to have to be part of some sort of centre-right realignment,” he told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Asked if there was a gap in the market, he said: “I think there are quite a lot of Conservative MPs right now who know they’re gonna lose their seats.

“Red Wallers know that they are going to lose their seats running as Conservatives.

“If there wasn’t coming together on the centre right, which is where the gap is, I think quite a few.”

Asked how many MPs could defect, he said: “Potentially double figures, that would not be hard see.”

Pressed again, he said: “I don’t know what Boris Johnson is gonna do. But I see a bigger gap for insurgency today than it did before.”

Dozens of Tory MPs have decided to stand down at the next election as they stare down the barrel of a Labour victory.

But Mr Farage’s claims that some Tories could join forces with him are likely to be met with scepticism.

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