Opinion

KASSAM: Brexit Betrayal Spells Doom For Britain’s (Fake) Conservative Party

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Raheem Kassam Contributor
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Tens of thousands of “leave” protesters rallied Britain’s Parliament today as the government once again failed to force through its pitiful pseudo-Brexit deal.

The march on the UK’s legislature was organized by the “Leave Means Leave” group and headlined by Brexit leader Nigel Farage, who used the opportunity to announce that he planned, if needed, to fight at the next European Parliamentary elections.

Hold on — you might think — if you voted to leave the European Union then why is Nigel planning to stand again in May’s EuroParl vote?

Well, it’s complex.

Technically speaking if there’s no more movement in the two weeks (and it doesn’t look like there can be) Britain should leave the European Union without a deal.

Buuuuut that probably won’t stop Theresa May nor Parliament from trying to extend the process further. If that happens, Britain would be well within her rights to field candidates in the upcoming European elections. And that would spell further disaster for the so-called Conservative Party.

Already hemorrhaging support, European parliamentary elections are a further (and historic) opportunity for Britons to exercise a “protest vote”. They did the same in 2014, when voters whisked the UK Independence Party into Britain’s MEP majority in the Parliament. That in turn led to David Cameron fearfully pledging a Brexit referendum, in the hopes of winning back Conservative voters. It worked for a short time, but it won’t work again.

This time, the vehicle is slightly different.

Having distanced himself from UKIP, Farage is likely to lead the newly formed Brexit Party into the next European elections. I understand he already has commitments from big figures on the Eurosceptic side of British politics: Steven Woolfe, Nathan Gill, and other popular names in the UK.

This would spell unmitigated (and frankly, quite welcome) disaster for the Conservative Party, which would be wiped out in the polls.

But that’s broadly academic right now.

The immediate consideration is what this parliament does with the Brexit process. In recent days the big answer has been “bugger all” aka nothing.

After months of demanding they have a say over the executive and over the British public, Parliament couldn’t even decide over the course of several votes in the past few weeks what it wants.

They couldn’t vote for May’s deal. They wouldn’t vote for a second referendum. And they haven’t been able to agree Britain remaining a part of the customs union after the nation leaves.

But as Nigel has previously said, this government is behaving like a country which lost a war, when in reality we are in a position to save the rest of Europe from the increasing tyranny of the European Union.

Now all we need is the U.S. government and legislators to come out and reiterate their support for Brexit, and their demands for a special trade deal with the United Kingdom.

If that can be amplified through the bully pulpit of the presidency, Britain could finally find itself on course to destroying the Conservative Party and replacing it with a real Conservative party. And the reason that should be important to Americans is this: for years British Conservative Party MPs have sauntered across America pretending to be friends of the Republican Party, but when they get back home they repeatedly malign and insult American colleagues for being “obsessed with guns, God, and gays.”

The time for a renewed conservative special relationship across the Atlantic is here. Let’s seize it.

Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) is the global editor in chief of Human Events and a fellow at the Claremont Institute and the Middle East Forum. He is the author of two bestselling books: “No Go Zones” and “Enoch Was Right.”


The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.