Farage not to contest Tory-held seats

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said on Monday that his party would not contest the 317 seats won by the Conservative Party in the 2017 election but would contest nearly all other seats.

In a significant boost for Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of a Dec.12 election, Farage said he did not want anti-Brexit parties to win the election so was standing down candidates in 317 of the 650 seats up for grabs.

“The Brexit Party will not contest the 317 seats the Conservatives won at the last election,” Farage said. “But we will do is concentrate our total effort into all of the seats that are held by the Labour Party, who have completely broken their manifesto in 2017.”

“Our action prevents a second referendum from happening,” Farage said. “We will also take on the rest of the remainer parties.”

Meanwhile, veteran British lawmaker Keith Vaz has announced he is standing down from parliament, just weeks after he was censured in a cocaine scandal.

Vaz, who was born to Goan parents in Yemen, was first elected for the central English city of Leicester in 1987. He will not stand again in next month’s vote, he announced late on Sunday.

A parliamentary watchdog last month recommended Vaz be suspended for six months for expressing a willingness to buy cocaine during an encounter with two male prostitutes.

The Sunday Mirror tabloid reported in September 2016 that Vaz, posing as an industrial washing machine salesman called Jim, invited the pair into his flat and offered to pay for cocaine for another man to use.

The watchdog said his suggestion that the men were there to discuss redecorating the London flat was “ludicrous.”

Vaz, 62, said at the time he had been treated for a serious mental health condition as a result of the incident.

Britain’s biggest political parties traded allegations of financial recklessness on Sunday as they vied to win voters’ trust on the economy ahead of the country’s Dec.12 election.

The main opposition Labour Party accused the governing Conservatives of spreading fake news with an eye-catching claim that Labour spending pledges will cost 1.2 trillion pounds ($1.5 trillion) over five years.

The figure is based on assuming a Labour government would implement every policy it has adopted in principle.

Agencies