A former ally of Nigel Farage has accused the Reform leader of betraying a promise to support her candidacy for election in Norfolk, as she launched her rival campaign.
Catherine Blaiklock, who founded the Brexit Party, claimed she made an agreement with him to pass on her shares in it on the condition that she would have his support to stand as a candidate in Great Yarmouth.
However, the party did not select a candidate for the town at the following election, in 2019, and - as the now renamed Reform Party - has chosen another candidate, former Southampton FC chairman Rupert Lowe, to stand in the town for next month's vote.
Ms Blaiklock, who runs a guesthouse in Lingwood, said she remained a fan of Mr Farage's but disagreed with the selection of Mr Lowe, who lives hundreds of miles away in the Cotswolds, and felt their agreement had been breached.
"I am a Nigel supporter, I have been loyal to him and I did not want to stand against him," the 61-year-old said.
"I thought long and hard about it. But he has my number and could have reached out to me.
"I do not agree with this business of parachuting candidates in. What does Rupert know about Great Yarmouth? How many times has he walked the streets and seen what it is actually like?"
She is standing as an English Democrat - a party that describes itself as the "only campaigning English nationalist party," which primarily focuses on reducing immigration.
She said Brexit had been a "catastrophe", for which she blamed MPs.
"There has been no joined-up logic and it has not gone well. Most of the MPs did not want it and they have done whatever they can to stop it from happening," she added.
She takes a particularly dim view of Norfolk's current crop of MPs but is perhaps surprisingly positive about one of them - former Liberal Democrat minister Norman Lamb, who represented North Norfolk for nearly two decades.
"He is still the best MP Norfolk has had. He did things," she said.
'FARAGE'S BETRAYAL'
Ms Blaiklock established the Brexit Party in January 2019 but resigned as leader two months later after criticism over a series of Tweets she had posted about Islam.
She was replaced by Mr Farage and the party went on to win that year's European elections. It also stood candidates in the Westminster election at the end of the year, although it won no seats.
She claims she received an email from Mr Farage on April 20, 2019, offering her the chance of running for the Yarmouth seat if she passed on her shares in the Brexit Party.
The email said: "If you can sort this out before the problem comes into the public domain, I will give you assurances you can take on Brandon Lewis in Great Yarmouth and you will probably win."
READ MORE: It's Norfolk's fiercest election battleground... but are the voters that fussed?
She said she agreed to the deal, adding she had "not received a penny" for her shares, but had given them to Mr Farage in a trust.
The Brexit Party did not stand a candidate in Yarmouth in 2019, as part of a policy of not opposing pro-Brexit Tories, and has now selected Mr Lowe to contest the seat.
'NO FREE SPEECH'
Ms Blaicklock resigned as Brexit Party leader after a series of inflammatory tweets about Islam, which Mr Farage described as "horrible and intolerant".
She has denied accusations she is racist, saying she has a black Jamaican husband and a multiracial family, and believes she was the victim of double standards.
"I was castigated for talking about Islam but when Nigel talks about it on his own terms it's fine. He kicked out 10 candidates recently. Reform is no longer a party of free speech."
"People should be able to say all sorts of things."
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