Nigel Farage vows to kickstart 'political revolution' with pledge to abolish House of Lords and overhaul voting system
3 min read
Nigel Farage has vowed to trigger a "political revolution" as his party unveiled their plans to abolish the House of Lords and overhaul the UK's voting system.
The Brexit Party leader revealed his general election plans despite admitting his party were not seeking election to form a government after they chose to stand down in 317 Tory held seats across the country.
But Mr Farage insisted Brexit Party candidates elected to Westminster would put pressure on Boris Johnson to ditch his current Brexit deal and pursue a so-called 'Clean Break' Brexit as well as pushing for a raft of political and economic reforms.
The party said they would put "ordinary people first" by scrapping the current voting system in exchange for a more "representative" scheme and would end the "corrupt" system of political patronage by abolishing the House of Lords.
Meanwhile, Mr Farage said there was an urgent need to scrap the current postal voting system because it was open to "fraud and abuse".
Speaking during the policy launch event in London on Friday morning, the leading Brexiteer said he had refused to describe his party's pledges as a manifesto because it was considered a "dirty word" amongst voters.
"Everybody know that a manifesto is little more than a set of vague promises that its authors have no intention of keeping," he said.
"By contract, our Contract with the People is a targeted set of deliverable pledges."
Other measures include a commitment to phase out the BBC licence fee, to scrap interest on student loans and end corporation tax for firms making less than £10,000 a year.
The twenty-page document also calls for a reduction in annual immigration figures, which Mr Farage said should be set at "around 50,000."
He added: "A Clean-Break Brexit can shape the future of our economy and society. It will give us the freedom to shape our future by taking immediate control of our own laws, borders, money, fishing and defence.
“We want to cancel HS2, save 50% of the foreign aid budget and save another £13bn a year in payments to the EU. That money can form part of a Brexit dividend to invest billions in Britain’s regions, cut the cost of living, and build a better future for millions of our people."
The party have also included proposals to introduce a so-called "Citizens Initiatives" scheme which would allow new referendums to be triggered if five million voters signed a register calling for one.
Asked about the plans, Mr Farage said repeat votes would not be allowed for at least ten years, meaning a second Brexit referendum would possibly not be allowed under the scheme until 2026.
He added: "We are not seeking election as a government. We are seeking to deliver the Brexit that we were promised three and a half years ago.
"With a Clean-Break Brexit, we can start changing Britain for good from day one. There will be no extended ‘transition period’, no more years of wrangling with Brussels, no further entanglement with the EU’s controlling political institutions.
"We will be free to start building our future immediately, to change politics and Britain for good. And that’s a promise.”
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SPONSORED CONTENT - A message from William Kedjanyi at Star Sports
“Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is known for wanting to Leave the EU but the Brexit Party’s policy launch today had a number of wide ranging headline policies.
"Aims such as scrapping interest on student loans, and abolishing the House of Lords look to have been selected with traditional Labour voters in mind, and suggest the party is likely to chase the votes of Labour Leavers.”
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