Politics

Party looking to do a ‘reverse UKIP’ pick up votes in London elections

A pro-EU party looking to do a ‘reverse UKIP’ had an impressive show in the London Assembly elections.

Rejoin EU Party took votes off both the Conservatives and Labour and managed to secure its deposit in the elections, despite being a relative newcomer to the race.

Party insiders say the result sends a “stark warning to any politician who thinks that Brexit can be swept under the carpet”, priming their focus on Sir Keir Starmer, who has dismissed talk of rejoining the union.

According to the latest Redfield & Wilton poll for UK in a Changing Europe published today, as many as 74 per cent of those who say they would vote Labour in a general election say they would vote to re-join in another EU referendum. 

Rejoin EU Party point to the economic damage Brexit has caused which has led to a squeeze on public finances.

Party leader and former Conservative MEP Brendan Donnelly said: “As I said at the beginning of the campaign, I am enormously proud to have stood with such a diverse range of candidates for the assembly: we had former members of Labour, the Lib Dems, the Green Party and the Conservatives on the list.

“As a party we continue to grow our number of supporters and the number of people interested in standing for us in the General Election. Unless all the main parties seriously put addressing Brexit at the heart of their policies, they risk losing a significant number of votes.”

Related: Tory paper mulls total wipeout of the Conservative Party

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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