[ad_1]
The Brexit Party leader is understood to have been enraged at the decision to stand aside to avoid splitting the Leave vote in the constituency. In an interview with Express.co.uk, Rupert Lowe outlined how Nigel Farage is “very angry” at him for pulling out of the general election just minutes before the deadline for nominations passed. The Brexit Party MEP for the West Midlands said he made the “very tough decision” last night as he feared his candidacy would split the Leave vote and ensure Labour candidate Melanie Dudley’s path to Westminster. Mr Lowe denied he had been offered a peerage or a job from the Tories for stepping down after Mr Farage alleged Boris Johnson’s aide Sir Edward Lister had offered Brexit Party candidates jobs if they withdrew from the election.
Explaining his decision to stand down, Mr Lowe said: “I saw no logic in me standing and splitting the Leave vote and letting somebody who is so politically different to me get into Westminster.”
He said he didn’t want to play a part in allowing the Labour Party, either alone or as part of a pact with the Lib Dems and SNP, to get into No10 as they “will destroy the country”.
He said: “I would be distraught if I saw a couple of ageing Marxists backed up by Momentum being given an opportunity to kill off this country for probably the next 50 years.”
Instead, the businessman advised Dudley North constituents to back the Tory candidate and said: “I am standing down to allow the Tory candidate, who is a eurosceptic, to win the seat.”
Mr Lowe said his decision to stand down caused many sleepless nights as he didn’t want to undermine the Brexit Party leadership of Mr Farage and Richard Tice, the party’s chairman.
But he said his conscience wouldn’t allow him to facilitate a Labour victory and after realising he would split the Leave vote, he thought it was best to stand down.
READ MORE: Iain Dale exposes Gina Miller’s ‘biggest problem’ on Brexit
Mr Tice then asked him to wait until later this evening to make the announcement, to avoid other Brexit Party candidates from pulling their nomination.
Mr Lowe was the only Brexit Party candidate to withdraw his candidacy.
He said he had hoped Mr Johnson would agree to a Leave alliance and withdraw Tory candidates in some Labour seats, and was disappointed that such an agreement had not been reached.
It comes after Mr Farage claimed that Mr Johnson’s aide Sir Edward Lister had offered Brexit Party candidates jobs if they withdrew from the election.
Mr Farage wrote on Twitter: “Even Boris Johnson’s Chief Strategic Adviser Sir Edward Lister is calling our candidates and offering them jobs if they withdraw. The system is corrupt and broken.”
But Mr Lowe said he had not been offered such a role and did not resign for that reason.
He also said he had not been offered a peerage.
[ad_2]
READ SOURCE
