Robert Peston Robert Peston

Why Boris could end up willing the Brexit party on

Nigel Farage says his decision not to run in Tory-held seats, but to contest Labour ones, eliminates the risk that there will be another referendum to decide whether we quit the EU.

This is nonsense.

It is helpful to Boris Johnson – who like Farage sees a referendum as pure poison – that the Brexit Party will not be battling him in his backyard.

But Johnson lacks a majority right now (Obvs! Why else is the misery of an election being inflicted on us?)

And the Tories are highly likely to lose seats in Scotland and in and around London to parties in favour of a referendum or staying in the EU, namely Labour, the Lib Dems and SNP.

Which is why the Tories DESPERATELY need to pick up seats from Labour in the North and midlands.

But this Johnsonian hope is ambitious: Many of such seats have been Labour since time immemorial.

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Robert Peston
Written by
Robert Peston
Robert Peston is Political Editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston. His articles originally appeared on his ITV News blog.

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