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Nigel Farage should be knighted over Brexit, Tory MP tells Boris Johnson

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage during a visit to Bolsover, Chesterfield, whilst on the General Election campaign trail.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage during a visit to Bolsover during the election campaign. (PA Images)

Nigel Farage should be knighted for his part in campaigning to leave the European Union, a Tory MP has said.

Andrew Bridgen, who represents North West Leicestershire, said the Brexit Party leader should be honoured as part of the national healing process urged by Boris Johnson in his post-election speech last week.

He also urged that Tory grandee Ken Clarke, who was booted out of the party for rebelling over Brexit and stood down ahead of the election, should be recognised.

Reading out his letter to Mr Johnson on BBC Radio Leicester on Monday, vocal Brexiteer Mr Bridgen said the Prime Minister should recognise voices on both sides of the referendum.

“I am therefore writing to recommend that the Government should honour Nigel Farage with a knighthood to reward the work he has undertaken over many years to advance the case for the UK leaving the European Union.

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen speaks during Prime Minister's Questions.

“Likewise I believe that my former constituency neighbour Kenneth Clarke should also be honoured with either a peerage or a knighthood to recognise his many years of service for the party and the country.”

He also asked for businessman and pro-Brexit political donor Arron Banks, who has heavily supported Nigel Farage, to be admitted into the Conservative Party.

Mr Bridgen said this was because of Mr Banks’s “clear role” in convincing the Brexit Party to stand down candidates in seats held by Tories from the 2017 election.

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“There can be no doubt that this made a clear difference to the campaign and enabled the party to achieve the majority that it did,” he said.

“I believe these moves will be warmly supported by many of our new supporters from the election and would demonstrate that we are moving on from from the Brexit argument to building a one nation people’s government.”

Mr Bridgen did not feature prominently in the election campaign, after initially defending Jacob Rees-Mogg’s much-criticised comments on the Grenfell Tower tragedy, then apologising for doing so after Mr Rees-Mogg himself apologised.