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20 November 2016

POLITICO: Trump’s UK allies put Remain MPs in their sights


A new populist, anti-establishment movement will launch early next year, the millionaire UKIP donor Arron Banks said, with a plan to target the least popular, pro-EU MPs and take their seats.

[...]The new anti-establishment, Trump-inspired movement will launch in early 2017, possibly as soon as January, the millionaire UKIP donor Arron Banks said.

Banks, who is close to Nigel Farage, currently UKIP’s interim leader, told POLITICO that the movement would draw on lessons from U.S. political consultant Gerry Gunster, who has advised Banks to “micro-target” constituencies where the majority voted Leave in the EU referendum, but the incumbent MP backed Remain.

Calling the plan a form of “direct democracy,” Banks said he wanted to put candidates in constituencies where polling indicates high levels of voter dissatisfaction with the elected representative. “The idea is you ask people in the actual constituency to rate their MP… It’s up to people to decide what we do,” he said. [...]

Banks’ declaration, after meeting Trump, that he wanted to “drain the swamp” of the House of Commons by standing 200 candidates against 200 of “the worst, most corrupt MPs,” has led to speculation that the next U.K.-wide election could see another populist, anti-politics earthquake.

Revealing more about the new movement, Banks told POLITICO that he wanted to build on methods used by Gunster, who was previously hired to support Leave.EU, the pro-Brexit campaign group Banks funded. [...]

Full article on POLITICO



© POLITICO


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