Thread by @lewis_goodall

They’re back! (They never went away) Brexit Party Conference week final rally in London. Packed to the rafters.

.@TiceRichard: “these people in Parliament get a little bit upset when you use the word ‘surrender’. How pathetic. Many of them haven’t done a proper day’s work in their lives.”

Tice: “We are way past peak Boris. They’ve made some bad, bad judgments in the last few weeks. Culminating in the Supreme Court judgment this week.”

.@benhabib6: “The squatters in Parliament, we’ll evict them soon enough.”

Mechanic Tegan Lucas PPC for Lewisham Deptford: “as a Londoner, as a lesbian, I studied the history of the suffragettes and the stonewall riots. And reading them, I realised nothing happens unless you fight for it. I’m here because I believe in democracy.”

Applause for Farage line that the Withdrawal Agreement is a “surrender treaty.” Farage told me earlier Johnson is going to regret banding the word “surrender” around a lot, because any deal he brings back will be “the real surrender document.”

What goes around...

Brexit Party domestic policy coming thick and fast:

-0% interest on student loan
-scrap apprenticeship levy with new “simple scheme”
- abolish inheritance tax
-“invest in smart taxation”
-won’t cut anything other than Foreign aid budget

He’s here

Farage: “not bad for 25 weeks in. We got rid of Mrs May. And I’m pretty sure Boris would never have become prime minister if it wasn’t for us.”

He’s right. The pivotal political moment of the year (aside from May’s deal being lost) was the foundation of the Brexit Party.

Farage: “If someone makes you a promise and knowingly breaks it I think that is betrayal and we should call it what it is...The real surrender would not be the Hillary Benn Act, the real surrender would be to sign us up to a terrible deal, with no voice, no vote, no veto.”

Boos for Blair, Bercow and most of all, apparently @Anna_Soubry, who Farage says, is the least popular figure of all amongst Leavers.

Farage: “There will not be violent riots on our streets. Because we have got a well run, sensible moderate political party called the Brexit Party and we’ll do it democratically and we’ll do it peacefully.”

Don’t I just have the best Friday nights?

Farage: “The reason Brexit party voters aren’t going to go back en masse to the Conservatives is we just don’t trust the Conservative party and we don’t trust Boris Johnson...Is Boris truly a Brexiteer?”

Farage: “I’ll tell you Mr Johnson, Mr Cummings if you try and sell a deal as Brexit, the British people will see through it. Heed that warning.”

Farage: “the Labour Party is a Marxist rabble.”

Farage: “Mr Corbyn wants to embark on a policy of uncontrolled mass immigration into Britain. Migration can be a good thing for our nation but you have to control it sensibly and selectively.“

Farage: “They’ve said all foreign citizens will also get the vote. Labour are trying to gerrymander future elections through uncontrolled mass migration.”

Takeaways from tonight?

In terms of the viciousness of the language in politics, plenty in the room thought it entirely justified. Eg One woman, when I asked her if she agreed that MPs in Westminster were traitors, replied “I think there’s a lot of truth in that, yes.”

Another said: “how dare they complain ? Have their feelings been hurt? Well tough. What about our feelings? What about democracy?”

Many at the Brexit Party rally brought up the idea of surrender repeatedly. But, as Farage alluded to, they think the biggest surrender isn’t the Benn Act but *any* withdrawal agreement. I suspect Boris Johnson is going to regret injecting the word surrender into the discourse.

Most disturbingly for Number 10, I asked even if Boris Johnson ran on an election promising *no deal* everyone I spoke to still said they wouldn’t vote for him but would stick with the Brexit Party. They just don’t trust him.

Of course these are some of the most committed activists but nonetheless as I’ve written before, there are many BXP voters who wouldn’t vote Tory no matter what Johnson does. It’s why they’re still, stubbornly stuck, at 12-15% in the polls.

Anyway, enough. This has been three weeks in one, at least. And...36 hours til Manchester. Have a great weekend, folks. See you Sunday.