Nigel Farage tells Boris Johnson: ‘I won’t be put back in my box by you or anybody else’

Brexit Party leader accuses Labour of ‘highly dubious electoral practices’ at Birmingham rally

Nigel Farage has attacked Boris Johnson, Theresa May and the Labour Party in a lively speech, delivered at a Brexit Party rally in Birmingham.

More than 5,000 supporters were present at the event as the MEP unveiled his new party’s first 100 prospective parliamentary candidates, ready to stand across the country in the event of a snap general election.

The would-be MPs, including teachers, an economist and a forklift truck driver, were introduced to the crowd before Mr Farage attacked both the Tory and Labour stances on Brexit.

He described Theresa May’s thrice rejected Brexit deal “the worst deal in history” and attacked Boris Johnson for voting for it.

“By the way Mr Johnson, you can try if you want to but I will not be put back in my box, by you or anybody else,” Mr Farage said, to cheers.

The Brexit Party leader said the electorate could not trust Mr Johnson, who is widely considered the frontrunner in the race to replace Theresa May as prime minister.

“Two or three times in his column in The Telegraph he wrote about that treaty that it would be a disaster for British democracy, that it would lead to us being a vassal state, that it would become a slave state, and twice he voted against it,” Mr Farage said.

“And on the third time of asking, he voted for it.

“Boris, why should we trust you when you tell us we are leaving on 31 October, come hell or high water and then the next day you confuse us all by saying it’s a million to one chance against us leaving with no deal?” Mr Farage asked.

“What is he on? Is he spending too much time with Michael Gove?”

But the former Ukip leader left the door open to a potential deal with Mr Johnson, if the Conservative MP promised to deliver a no-deal Brexit.

He said: “In the highly unlikely event that Boris finds some courage, in the event that he stands up and says ‘I’m going to stand up and challenge parliament to vote me down’, even if it means facing a vote of no confidence, even if it means a general election, in those highly unusual events I would of course then be prepared to meet him in the demilitarised zone.”

Mr Farage also encouraged the supportive crowd around him to boo senior Labour Party figures such as Gordon Brown, Emily Thornberry and Keir Starmer.

The loudest boos were reserved for Mr Farage’s mention of Diane Abbott, the shadow foreign secretary.

He went on to criticise Andrew Marr and the broadcast media and encouraged the crowd to cheer news of the impending departure of the UK’s lead Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins.

Mr Robbins, a top civil servant who brokered Ms May’s Brexit deal, is expected to stand down from his role this summer.

Mr Farage also acknowledged that there had been “a lot of speculation” about the organisation’s source of funding.

He dismissed the concerns as being prompted “by jealousy” and claimed the party’s money came from members’ donations.

The Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into the Brexit Party and its donations, with some fearing that it is benefiting from foreign funding.

Mr Farage’s sharpest attacks at the rally were aimed at the Labour Party, which he said was ”obsessed with identity politics and the globalist agenda”.

The Labour Party won the recent Peterborough by-election, defeating the Brexit Party candidate.

Mr Farage alleged that it had done so by using “highly dubious electoral practices”.

Cambridgeshire Police, however, have said no offences have been revealed in respect to one allegation of bribery and two relating to postal votes during its ongoing investigation.

The Brexit Party has tabled a petition calling for an investigation into allegations of impropriety during the vote.