Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party has announced its candidate for the forthcoming Peterborough by-election – and it’s a former businessman who has appeared on The Secret Millionaire.
Mike Green will stand for Nigel Farage’s new party in its first shot at a seat in Westminster after the leader claimed he was “too busy” to stand for an eighth time to try to win a seat in the House of Commons.
The by-election will find a replacement for MP Fiona Onasanya who lost her seat through a recall petition after serving time in prison for lying about a speeding offence.
Onasanya, who was elected as a Labour MP in 2017, said she will not stand in the by-election.
reene wrote on Twitter: “I am proud to be taking on the challenge of standing for the Brexit Party and rebuilding trust in democracy.”
George Galloway, who last week announced that he would be standing, has withdrawn from the contest after the Brexit Party named its candidate.
He said he had “tried to persuade” Farage to support his candidacy to “emphasise the broad democratic alliance the campaign must be and balance the candidatures of” Ann Widdecombe and Annunziata Rees-Mogg.
Candidates announced so far include Lisa Forbes for Labour, Paul Bristow for the Conservatives, Beki Sellick for the Lib Dems, Joseph Wells for the Greens, John Whitby for UKIP, Patrick O’Flynn for the SDP and Alan ‘Howling Laud’ Hope for the Monster Raving Loony Party.
It had been claimed that there could be a single Remain unity candidate representing Change UK, the Lib Dems and Greens – but a decision would need to be made by Thursday for this to happen.
The Conservatives lost Peterborough City Council to no overall control in last week’s local elections after three years in charge of the consistently marginal authority.
Labour remain the second largest group on the council with 17 seats, followed by the Lib Dems with nine.
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