Displaying items by tag: UKIP

Nigel Farage could become leader of a new pro-Brexit party if Britain’s departure from the EU is delayed beyond 29 March. The former UKIP leader said he had offered his enthusiastic support to the Brexit party after being sounded out as its potential leader. Catherine Blaiklock, formerly a spokeswoman for UKIP, confirmed that on 11 January she had applied to register the party with the Electoral Commission. It would be ready to fight any snap general election, or the local elections across England in May. She said, ‘I think people feel treason has been committed. It’s democracy. It wouldn’t matter whether Leave had won by a single vote - it’s a first-past-the-post system.’ The party would aim to attract the 17.4 million people who voted to leave in 2016, and to win over defectors from the Conservatives, Labour, and UKIP.

Ex-UKIP chief Nigel Farage has accused London mayor Sadiq Khan of hypocrisy for attacking US President Trump’s travel ban while inviting ambassadors from countries which refuse entry to Israeli citizens. At a meeting in City Hall on Tuesday night, Khan condemned Trump’s so-called ‘Muslim ban’ for being a ‘cruel, prejudiced and counterproductive’ policy. Also present at the reception were diplomatic representatives from eleven of the sixteen countries which do not allow entry to Israelis. Farage took to Twitter to call the London mayor a hypocrite. However, LSE professor and Middle East expert Fawaz A Gerges told the Independent that the two situations are totally different. ‘Trump’s ban is a Muslim ban, based on religious discrimination and racial discrimination. The relationship between Israel and its Arab neighbours is one of war since 1947 - for the last 70 years. By trying to force comparison, it just flies in the face of reality, it’s apples and oranges, sky and sea,’ he said. ‘What Trump has done has undermined America as a moral voice in the world.’