Nigel Farage has ditched plans to take on the Tories in more than 300 seats, after what he said was Boris Johnson’s “shift of position” on Brexit. The Brexit Party leader had planned to run candidates in 600 seats after Mr Johnson rejected his offer of a “Leave alliance” to deliver Brexit.

But he has been under pressure not to split the pro-Brexit vote. The party will not now stand in 317 seats won by the Tories in 2017, but will continue to stand elsewhere. Mr Farage said his party would focus its efforts on trying to take seats held by Labour, whom he accused of “betraying” its Leave-supporting voters.

The BBC’s Alex Forsyth said some Brexit Party candidates had expressed concern about Mr Farage’s plan to stand against the Tories in 600 constituencies, fearing it could hand an election victory to Labour and lead to another EU referendum.

Mr Johnson welcomed Mr Farage’s move, calling it “a recognition that there’s only one way to get Brexit done, and that’s to vote for the Conservatives”.

But Tory chairman James Cleverly said there was still a “danger” the Brexit Party could split the Eurosceptic vote in target seats, leading to the election of MPs who could “frustrate the Brexit process”.(BBC)…[+]