No 10 dismisses Farage’s offer of non-aggression pact

LONDON: Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage’s offer to form a non-aggression pact with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a general election has been strenuously dismissed by Downing Street.

Number 10 said the Prime Minister would not do a deal with Farage. A senior Conservative source described Farage and Brexit-campaigning ally Arron Banks as not being “fit and proper”, and said they should never be “allowed anywhere near” government.

Farage has pledged to enter a deal with the Tories if Johnson commits to a no-deal, what he calls a “clean-break Brexit”. But voices close to Johnson were unequivocal on Wednesday. A Number 10 spokesman said: “The PM will not be doing a deal with Nigel Farage.”

The senior Conservative source added: “Neither Nigel Farage or Arron Banks are fit and proper persons, and they should never be allowed anywhere near government.”Farage campaigned with Banks’ Leave EU group while Johnson and his chief adviser Dominic Cummings were key to the official Vote Leave campaign. The Brexit Party has offered to not field candidates to oppose hardline Brexit Tories who voted against Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement all three times and who support no-deal.

Farage is also clear that any rehashed version of May’s deal cannot be presented to MPs. His party wants the Conservatives not to run in around 90 Leave-voting constituencies that have never backed the Tories and supported the Brexit Party in the European Parliament elections.

Farage claims the effort could help ward off the threat from a “Remain alliance” of opposition parties who oppose Brexit and could depose the Tories. Downing Street’s rebuttal of the pact came on the day the Brexit Party took out a wraparound advert across the front page of The Daily Express, as well as on a full page inside The Sun.

The Tory source’s comment incensed Farage, who tweeted it appears to be “from deep inside the bunker” and that he does not want a government job, nor is Banks in the Brexit Party.