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General election 2019: Nigel Farage targets south Wales Labour seats General election 2019: Farage makes last ditch plea for pact with Tories
(about 4 hours later)
Nigel Farage has predicted his Brexit Party will do "very well" in Welsh Labour heartland seats in the election. Nigel Farage has said the Brexit Party will try "for a few more days" to agree an electoral pact with the Tories.
He confirmed the party will fight all 40 seats in Wales, but would not forecast if it would win any. Campaigning in south Wales, he said his party would beat Labour in "many constituencies" in the region if the Conservatives withdrew from the field.
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. But he said Boris Johnson would have to abandon his deal with the EU, which was "not Brexit" but a "short term political fix" to win the election.
He also voiced his frustration that there is no "Leave alliance" with the Conservatives. He also challenged the prime minister to a head-to-head debate on the deal.
Mr Farage said he had hoped a Leave alliance could have combated the "Remain alliance". The event took place on Friday in Little Mill near Pontypool, just over the border from the Labour-held constituency of Torfaen but located in the Tory-held constituency of Monmouth.
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. Speaking at a village hall, Mr Farage had this message for Mr Johnson: "If you really believe that this is a great new deal, or as you said in the last couple of days a fantastic deal, if you are really trying to tell the British public this gets Brexit done, let's have a civilised head-to-head debate on what this EU treaty means and I'd be only be too happy to stand with Boris to talk this through."
The Lib Dems and Greens have the same pact in 49 English seats. Last week, Boris Johnson rejected suggestions that he should work with the Brexit Party during the election.
"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." Plaid Cymru, Liberal Democrats and the Greens have agreed a pro-EU electoral pact in 11 of the 40 seats in Wales.
Mr Farage pledged that his party would support the Welsh Assembly and contest the next assembly election, in 2021. Repeating his call for a leave alliance, Mr Farage said: "if that leave alliance was put to the country it would win a very big majority".
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 Farage denied trying to split the vote and accused the Conservative Party of not wanting to come to "any sort of accommodation".
"I'm going go on trying for a few more days and make the point that in Torfaen, and other constituencies here in south Wales, the Conservatives haven't won for a hundred years," he said.
"And they're not going to win here on 12 December, there is no chance of them winning.
"So I would make this urgent plea to Boris Johnson and others - don't split the Brexit Party vote here in south Wales.
"We are the challengers here in south Wales and if you're not in the field we will beat Labour in many of these constituencies."
Mr Farage said the prime minister should ditch his Brexit deal because "it's not Brexit, it's a short term political fix and an attempt to win a general election".
He urged Mr Johnson to "make it clear that we absolutely have to leave" the EU "at some point in 2020, with or without any form of deal".
That deal "must be a trade deal, not one based on regulatory and political alignment", he added.
Mr Farage said his party was ready to fight all the Welsh seats, if there was no pact with the Conservatives.
Asked earlier on BBC Radio Wales how many seats his party would win, 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.
"We comfortably topped the poll in Wales, coming first in many, many seats.""We comfortably topped the poll in Wales, coming first in many, many seats."
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. Asked if he would publish an election manifesto, Mr Farage said he would produce what he called a "contract with the British people".
"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." He said it was 95% ready and the party would launch it in the next few weeks.
Mr Farage said it wasn't "fair to impose another referendum upon the people when they've already voted".
"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."
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.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.
There are also two Welsh Brexit Party MEPs.There are also two Welsh Brexit Party MEPs.