Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage
The parties contesting the European parliamentary elections in the UK have picked their candidates, with insurgent groups Change UK and The Brexit Party going for some unexpected choices.
Pro-remain outfit Change UK’s new potential candidates include former broadcasters Rachel Johnson and Gavin Esler. The former - sister of ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson - previously joined the Liberal Democrats before the 2017 general election in protest at the Conservative Party’s support for Brexit.
Former BBC Newsnight presenter Esler is presenting Change UK as a “Remain alliance” formed to “stop Brexit, fix Britain and move on to reform the EU”. Esler says he is sick of Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg “selling the same old snake oil”, adding: “They stole our patriotism and I want it back.”
On the other side of the argument, the potential candidates for the Brexit Party include Ann Widdecombe. The former Tory MP told the Daily Express: “The public needs to send a very clear message and that is we expect the vote to be respected so just get on with the job of getting us out of the EU.”
Widdecome’s candidacy “completes a pretty high-profile line-up of candidates in the Southwest that should make the hustings down there quite a thing to behold”, says Politico’s Jack Blanchard.
Her opponents “will include Remainiac peer Andrew Adonis (Labour), columnist and famous sibling Rachel Johnson (Change UK), YouTube star and anti-feminist Carl Benjamin aka Sargon of Akkad (UKIP), and eco-warrior Molly Scott Cato (Green Party)”, Blanchard adds.
Here are all the parties standing this time around:
Change UK
The group only registered as a political party earlier this month but “it could yet do well, delivering a new group of British MEPs likely to align with centrist forces like Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique En Marche party in the European Parliament”, says Politico. The party’s interim leader, Heidi Allen, said at the launch: “These elections are a chance to send the clearest possible message - we demand a People’s Vote and the right to campaign to remain in the European Union.”
However, the party launch event “was marred when one of its candidates, Ali Sadjady, was forced to stand down within hours over comments about Romanians”, reports The Times.
The Brexit Party
The Brexit Party’s official launch last week was heralded by Business Insider as a “masterclass in simple political messaging”. Currently leading in some polls and marshalled by former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage says that his main aim is to make sure “that the United Kingdom shall cease to be a member of the European Union”.
But in an article on BrexitCentral, another of Farage’s Tory defectors and also a famous sibling, Annunziata Rees-Mogg, insists the party’s cause goes beyond Brexit. “This fight is as much about democracy as it is leaving the EU,” she writes. “We need to change politics for the better before it is too late. Our fight is just as important as the suffragettes.”
UKIP
The party won the most seats in the UK in the 2014 European elections but has seen many of its MEPs defect over to Farage’s new outfit during the life of the parliament. This time, the party has chosen a number of controversial Youtubers to stand, including Markus Meechan aka Count Dankula, and Benjamin.
UKIP leader Gerard Batten has also faced criticism for courting former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson. Politico’s poll of polls has support for the party now down to just 7%.
Labour
Labour came second in the 2014 vote but face a tricky battle to maintain support from both the Remain and Leave wings of the party. Analysis by the People’s Vote campaign shows that 16 of the 20 leading Labour potential MEPs back a second referendum.
Campaigners “are hopeful that the move shows the Labour leader is moving closer towards backing another vote on Britain’s EU membership, and could include it in the party’s manifesto for the European Parliament election”, says The Sun. But the newspaper notes that the Brexit Party “also thinks the decision will win them more votes at next month’s poll”.
Conservatives
The Tories are expected to be one of the big losers in the election, with Theresa May still pinning her hopes on the UK not having to take part at all. A recent questionnaire of party members for the ConservativeHome website found that 62% were planning to vote for the Brexit Party, with just 23% backing the Tories.
The current leader of the Conservative group in the European Parliament, Ashley Fox, has confirmed that he will be taking part, and joked about the likely reception he faces when campaigning.
Lib Dems
The Lib Dems see the elections as an opportunity to make the case for continued EU membership, but “talk of different anti-Brexit, pro-referendum parties co-operating, either by putting forward a single list of candidates or not standing in certain regions, has come to nothing”, says the BBC. There is some good news though, with Politico’s poll of polls putting the Lib Dems in fourth place, narrowly ahead of Change UK.
Greens
The Green Party says it plans “to use these democratic and proportional elections to mobilise one of the strongest pro-EU movements anywhere on the Continent and champion a fairer, greener, more democratic EU”. The party will also hope to capitalise on the added focus on climate change in the UK, and Politico’s poll of polls puts the Greens just one percentage point behind the Lib Dems.
Others
The UK’s main regional parties, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein, have also signalled their intention to stand. The SNP says the elections are an opportunity to present “Scotland’s opposition to Brexit in clear and unambiguous terms”.
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