Brexit Party candidates hounded as masked protesters storm party rally in Plymouth
BREXIT PARTY candidates were targeted by a band of masked Antifa protesters during a party rally in Plymouth on Monday evening.
Election: Protesters picket Brexit Party rally in Plymouth
Prospective MPs standing for the Brexit Party in the area were addressing supporters as part of the party's General Election Tout in Plymouth's Duke of Cornwall Hotel. But as the Brexit Party event got underway, a group of masked Antifa protestors assembled outside the hotel to picket the rally. Footage from the scene shows a crowd standing outside the venue holding placards reading "smash fascism and racism" as the crowd chants: "Say it loud, say it clear, migrants are welcome here."
One of the masked protesters can be seen slowly approaching the camera while holding a flag of the Antifa movement.
The Brexit Party greatly reduced the number of candidates running as leader Nigel Farage announced 317 prospective MPs would stand down to help the Conservatives keep a hold of seats won in 2017.
The party will not field candidates in Cornwall as all constituencies in the area are under Tory control but Brexit Party grandee Ann Widdecombe is running to snatch the Plymouth Sutton and Devenport from Labour's Luke Pollard.
In a statement released ahead of Monday evening’s rally, Ms Widdecombe said: “Plymouth voted Leave with 60 percent in the referendum and the constituency itself by 54 percent to 46 percent, which was a bigger margin than the national result.
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"Yet the MP has voted to keep the supremacy of EU law after Brexit and for Brexit to be conditional upon continued membership of the single market, which means inability to control our own borders. He is resolutely opposed to a clean break.
"The Brexit Party believes parliament must do the will of the people."
The latest Politico “poll of polls,” an aggregation of all available national polls, has shown a slight drop in support for the Conservative Party as Labour began to creep up.
Boris Johnson’s party averaged at 42 percent, with the Opposition trailing behind at 31 percent.
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The gap between the two main parties has only closed slightly but it could reflect the public mood shifting around the manifestos.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine on Tuesday said he cannot support people who are going to make the country "poorer and less influential" - singling out Labour leader Jeremy
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said Jeremy Corbyn "isn't fit to be prime minister, he's not going to be prime minister and you know it, I know it and every pollster reveals it".
He added: "I think it's much more likely - the question is not whether he can be prime minister, it's whether he continues to lead the Labour Party by Christmas because I think there will be a great move to get rid of him.
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"I think anyone who might form a temporary coalition will insist on it not being Jeremy Corbyn."
Lord Heseltine said: "The real issue is what is at stake and it is the prosperity of this country, the world influence of this country, our relationships with our neighbours in Europe - this is transcendingly the over-arching issue at stake in this election.
"I cannot vote or support people who are going to make the country poorer and less influential - full stop, end of story."
The Tory peer also urged voters not to back candidates supporting Brexit, including Conservative nominees.