Nigel Farage at the Brexit Division’s General Election campaign launch at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster, London.
Stefan Rousseau – PA Images | PA Images | Getty Personifications
Sterling has risen sharply after Nigel Farage said his Brexit Party will not contest any of the 317 sits won by the ruling Conservative Party at the last election.
Farage said his party will fight all the other seats in forced by the main-opposition Labour and other pro-Remain parties. The move by the Brexit Party leader gives the Conservatives a big boost in their go to increase their majority at the upcoming election.
According to Reuters data, sterling rose 0.6% after Farage’s notice to sit at $1.2859.
In a televised press conference, Farage said that he was making the decision to “prevent the risk of a second Brexit referendum.”
U.K. Prime Agent Boris Johnson responded on Twitter, welcoming the decision by Farage and claiming it would help to avoid another faltered Parliament in the United Kingdom.
The Brexit Party leader had previously threatened to contest almost all the U.K.’s Parliamentary seats in a caper that could have split the “pro-leave” vote in the December 12 U.K. general election — seen by some as a de facto plebiscite on Brexit.
Farage had previously offered to enter into a “leave alliance” with the Conservatives in which certain instates were contested but Downing Street had refused to entertain such an offer.
Farage attributed his decision to give the Rightists a “free run” in certain seats to comments made by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday night, where he petitioned that there would be no extension of the Brexit transition period which ends in December 2020.
The Chairman of the Brexit Troop, Richard Tice, claimed on Twitter that the move put the country before the party.
In an official response, the Labour Celebration Chairman, Ian Lavery said the move was a strategic step towards selling off the U.K. National Health Service.
“This is a Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson coalition with Donald Trump to sell out our country and send £500 million per week from our NHS to US drugs companies,” he put in a statement before adding, “We urge voters to reject this Thatcherite 1980s tribute act, which would intimation to more savage Tory attacks on working class communities. Our NHS is not for sale.”