Jacob Rees-Mogg's Sister Announced As Candidate For Farage's New Brexit Party

12 April 2019, 12:45 | Updated: 12 April 2019, 13:09

The sister of arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has been announced as the first candidate for Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party in the upcoming European elections.

At a launch event in Coventry, Mr Farage took to the podium to give his reasons for starting a new party. Speaking about the 2016 referendum he said: "stupidly, for a moment I thought we'd won."

Farage took to Twitter before the launch, saying: "We are a great nation and a great people, but we are being held back by weak leadership in Westminster. The time to change this is now."

The former Ukip leader says his new party will have the same policies as his old one.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg was announced as the party's first MEP candidate.

Addressing a crowd of supporters, Ms Rees-Mogg said it was not a decision she had taken lightly after years loyally supporting the Tories.

"I joined the Conservative Party in 1984 and this is not a decision I have made lightly - to leave a party for which I have fought at every election since 1987, from Maggie Thatcher through to Theresa May.

"I know which one I'd rather have representing us now."

She added: "We've got to rescue our democracy, we have got to show that the people of this country have a say in how we are run."

“Addressing supporters Mr Farage said that the Brexit Party would field the "most impressive list of candidates any political party has ever put before the British public in history”.

After revealing he had placed a £1,000 bet that the Brexit Party would win the European elections, at odds of three to one, the Brexit Party founder said: “I do believe that we can win these European elections and that we can again start to put the fear of God into our Members of Parliament in Westminster. They deserve nothing less than that after the way they’ve treated us over this betrayal."