Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage will not run in UK election

LONDON - Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain's upstart Brexit Party, said he would not stand in the next month's election, choosing instead to campaign countywide against Prime Minister Boris Johnson's EU divorce deal.

"I have thought very hard about this: How do I serve the cause of Brexit best?" he told the BBC's Andrew Marr on Sunday.

"Do I find a seat and try to get myself into parliament or do I serve the cause better traversing the length and breadth of the United Kingdom supporting 600 candidates, and I've decided the latter course is the right one."

Farage, an anti-EU campaigner, set up the Brexit Party just this year and swiftly won the most votes in Britain in European elections in May.

His announcement this week that the party would field candidates in all constituencies in next month's snap election was seen as a potential setback for Johnson, risking splitting the vote of Brexit supporters.

Farage previously led the UK Independence Party (UKIP). The threat that it might siphon off Conservative votes played a major role in persuading then-Prime Minister David Cameron to hold the 2016 referendum in which Britain voted to quit the EU.

Reuters