Yahoo News Farage accuses Tories of covering up ‘corruption’ over inducements
Nigel Farage has accused the Tories of lying to cover up their “corruption” after the Conservatives denied having offered his Brexit party candidates inducements to stand down.
As Labour reported the allegations to the police, senior Tories lined up to say they had never tried to make any deals with Brexit party candidates to give Boris Johnson’s party a clearer run at marginal target seats.
Farage claims that one No 10 official offered a job on the Brexit negotiating team to the former Tory Ann Widdecombe, and the prime minister’s senior adviser Eddie Lister offered a job in higher education to Mike Greene, who is also standing for the Brexit party.
It is understood that Lister did speak to at least one Brexit party candidate on the phone, but the Conservatives deny that any job offers or deals were made in that phone call.
Brandon Lewis, the Tory security minister, told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “No one has been offered jobs or anything like that.
“There have been no job offers, we have done no deals with anybody.”
Related: Brexit party will not contest 317 Tory-won seats, Farage says
Farage told the BBC’s Pienaar’s Politics: “Is he calling Ann Widdecombe a liar? Perhaps he is, I don’t know. Ann Widdecombe made it perfectly clear she received two phone calls, from a senior official in No 10, offering her a job on the negotiating team if she stood down as an election candidate. Fact.
“You can agree with Ann’s views in life or disagree, but the fact that she’s a very honest woman, I think nobody would ever disagree with. Fact.
“Fact number two: Sir Eddie Lister rang up our candidate for Peterborough, offering him a job in higher education if he stood down as a candidate. They’re the things that are already out in the open. What I have said … is there was actually a package put together in which eight senior figures of the Brexit party would go to the House of Lords and be offered a place in the negotiating team. It’s corruption. It’s corruption.”
The Met police are assessing two allegations of electoral fraud, following a complaint from the Labour peer Lord Falconer.
In a letter to the Met police commissioner, Cressida Dick, and the director of public prosecutions, Max Hill QC, he referred to Farage’s claim that he and eight other senior figures within the Brexit party were offered peerages and said it should be investigated by police as a matter of urgency in order to maintain public confidence in the integrity of the election.
The Met said: “The MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] has received two allegations of electoral fraud and malpractice in relation to the 2019 general election. The MPS special inquiry team is responsible for investigating all such criminal allegations. Both allegations are currently being assessed.
“The MPS will not be providing comment about individual cases.”
