Nigel Farage kicked off his election campaign today in Dennis Skinner’s seat of Bolsover.
The Brexit Party leader took a swing at Boris Johnson as he took to the boxing ring, saying his deal would “effectively break up the United Kingdom” and calling for voters to back him to deliver a “genuine Brexit”.
Labour constituencies
Yesterday Farage vowed to target five million Labour voters who backed Brexit in 2016.
He said that when he been the leader of Ukip, they had done “far more harm” to the Labour Party than to the Conservatives.
“Those five million are the most vulnerable group of voters to the Brexit Party in this country,” he added.
“I will be out in those Labour constituencies. I’ll be in the East Midlands, I’ll be in South Wales. I’ll be in the North East. I want the country to know the sheer extent of Labour betrayal.”
Beast of Bolsover
Dennis Skinner, known as the Beast of Bolsover, has held the seat since 1970 and became the longest continuously serving Labour MP on 16 December 2017.
He is known for his left-wing views and an acerbic wit, telling The London Economic earlier this year that there should be more working class people in parliament.
He said: “When you think, there are a million people who work in the health service, yet there are probably only half a dozen MPs in Parliament, on all sides, that have had experience in the NHS.
“I would say we ought to have 50-60 percent of people, like me [working-class], who know what it’s like to clock on and clock off.”
Kevin Harper
Kevin Harper was announced as the Brexit Party candidate to run against Skinner in August.
Tweeting under the handle @BolsoverBrexit, he said he stood because he was “tired of watching the news and seeing the three years’ of betrayal on delivering on the referendum vote in 2016”.
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