Ann Widdecombe mocks Corbyn with general election warning: ‘We’re coming for you!’
BREXIT Party MEP and former shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe has warned Jeremy Corbyn Nigel Farage’s outfit is in good shape to take seats from Labour in its northern heartlands next week.
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She also said she was “optimistic” her party can enough seats to hold the balance of power in a hung Parliament - and “hold Boris Johnson’s feet to the fire” to ensure he takes the UK out of the European Union. Ms Widdecombe, who made a sensational return to frontline politics after she was elected along with 28 other Brexit Party candidates in the European Parliamentary elections earlier this year, said she backed Nigel Farage’s decision not to field candidates in constituencies which elected a Tory MP in 2017. And she said his announcement should terrify Mr Corbyn.
Ms Widdecombe told Express.co.uk: “I’m very encouraged as the campaign moves on.
“We are doing well in Labour seats and have a very good chance of taking some from them.
“My immediate concern is to hold the balance of power - and if we can win enough seats to do that, then we can say to Boris if you’re going to get Brexit done, we’re going to make sure you do it right.
“As Nigel says, we will hold his feet to the fire.”
She acknowledged Mr Farage’s decision had failed to impress everybody within the Brexit Party - for example, fellow MEP Alexandra Phillips, who claimed she had been “disenfranchised by my own party”.
However, Ms Widdecombe added: “Nigel did what he did because he decided it was the best way forward.
“You can’t please everybody all of the time.”
She also warned the Tories they risked shooting themselves in the foot by refusing to stand candidates down in Labour seats where they stood little chance of winning, suggesting in doing so they were hampering the Brexit Party’s chances of blocking Mr Corbyn.
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She added: “Nigel’s announcement didn’t surprise me as a strategy.
“I just wish we’d had a bit more support from the Conservative Party.
“I think they have been a disgrace through - they are only interested in themselves, throughout this entire process.
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“There is just this massive sense of entitlement and it’s like Nigel said, they’ve put party before country.
“Boris has done that - he’s very vainglorious.
“There are places in the industrial north where the Tories have not won in a century, but where the Brexit Party could.
“If Labour ends up winning those seats, they’ve only got themselves to blame, frankly.”
Aside from political considerations, Miss Widdecombe said the sense she was picking up on the doorsteps on the UK was chiefly one of fatigue.
She explained: “Everybody is just fed up to the back teeth with it all I think.
“They don’t want to vote - they just want to get on with Christmas.”
Nevertheless, she was not concerned at the prospect of a sudden blizzard wreaking havoc on December 12.
She added: “I’m not worried about a little bit of snow.”