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General election 2019: Nigel Farage targets south Wales Labour seats General election 2019: Nigel Farage targets south Wales Labour seats
(about 2 hours later)
Nigel Farage will visit south Wales later "to kick things off" for the Brexit Party's general election campaign. Nigel Farage has predicted his Brexit Party will do "very well" in Welsh Labour heartland seats in the election.
The party is targeting "Labour heartland seats", says MEP Nathan Gill. He confirmed the party will fight all 40 seats in Wales, but would not forecast if it would win any.
Mr Gill said people in the south Wales valleys "will never vote Tory but they will vote for the Brexit Party". Mr Farage said the party would focus on areas which voted Leave in the EU referendum, but which were represented by Remainer MPs in the last parliament.
Mr Farage told BBC Radio Wales the party had 40 candidates ready to contest every seat in Wales. He also voiced his frustration that there is no "Leave alliance" with the Conservatives.
"Clearly our real focus is many of those Labour-held seats that voted very strongly for leave that are now represented effectively by remain MPs who want to force a second referendum on them." Mr Farage said he had hoped a Leave alliance could have combated the "Remain alliance".
Mr Farage added Prime Minister Boris Johnson's deal was "not Brexit". In 11 Welsh seats candidates from Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party will stand aside for each other to increase the chances of a Remain-supporting MP being elected.
He said: "We've been through three years of agony, Boris' so-called deal gives us another three years of agony and I think when people realise that, they're pretty upset. The Lib Dems and Greens have the same pact in 49 English seats.
"I'm urging the prime minister, stand up and say that you will change this deal further still so that it really starts to look like Brexit." "There has been some talk maybe of Boris Johnson doing a deal with us," said Mr Farage. "I have said for months now that I thought a Leave alliance would be a very good idea, but apparently that's not wanted."
Following a pact between the pro-remain parties Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party not to stand against each other, Mr Farage said he had believed a "leave alliance" would be a "good idea, but apparently that's not wanted". Mr Farage pledged that his party would support the Welsh Assembly and contest the next assembly election, in 2021.
Mr Gill also told BBC Wales Mr Johnson's Brexit deal was almost exactly the same as the one his predecessor Theresa May had negotiated with EU leaders. Asked how many seats in Wales his party would win at this election, Mr Farage said: "I've no idea. Do you know, when I launched the campaign for the European elections, going back to April this year, I had no idea how we would do.
Mr Gill said the prime minister had voted twice against Mrs May's deal and Mr Johnson had called that agreement "vassalage". "We comfortably topped the poll in Wales, coming first in many, many seats."
"All the things we said we'd be able to do, we won't be able to do, it's not Brexit, it's not taking back control," he said. He said the problem with the Conservatives' EU deal was that it was "not Brexit" and added that the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier had predicted the next phase of negotiations would last at least three years.
"Millions of people voted for taking back control but under the prime minister's deal we're giving too much control still to the EU and Brexiteers don't like it." "We've been through three years of agony, Boris's so-called deal gives us another three years of agony, and when people realise that they are pretty upset."
'Brexiteer seats' Mr Farage said it wasn't "fair to impose another referendum upon the people when they've already voted".
Mr Gill, who is one of two Brexit Party MEPs in Wales, defended the decision of party leader Mr Farage not to stand in the election. "Everybody promised - the Conservatives and Labour, even at the time the Lib Dems - that the referendum would be enacted, and three and a half years on it hasn't been."
"It's a sign of pragmatism," he said. Launched just seven months ago, the Brexit Party has four Welsh Assembly members, who were previously members of UKIP, the party Mr Farage used to lead.
"It's much better for Nigel to be fighting the air war for us, doing all the media, coming to Wales and making sure we get Brexiteers elected so we can have a great deal of effect when there's a hung parliament on 13 December." There are also two Welsh Brexit Party MEPs.
He added: "We're targeting those Labour heartland seats in the south Wales valleys which have been left behind for years and years.
"They will never vote Tory but they will vote for the Brexit Party. They are all Brexiteer seats."
The party has never had an MP in Wales.
It has four Welsh Assembly members.
Like Mr Gill, they were previously members of UKIP, the party Mr Farage used to lead.