Who are the Brexit Party’s mystery prospective MPs?
Candidates said to include teachers, a forklift truck driver and two people from showbiz

The Brexit Party paraded 100 prospective MPs in front of a 5,500-strong crowd on Sunday - but refused to name any of the candidates.
Featuring fireworks and glowsticks, the party’s Big Vision Rally, at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, had “the sort of razzmatazz more usually seen at a concert than a political rally”, says The Daily Telegraph.
The candidates paraded to the “booming sounds of High Hopes”, by indie band Panic! At The Disco, the newspaper reports.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“This fine group of people are but a start,” party leader Nigel Farage told the cheering audience. “There is a big message that Westminster needs to hear. We are not a protest movement.”
In a dig at Tory leadership runner Boris Johnson, he added: “Oh, and by the way, Mr Johnson, you can try if you want to, but I will not be put back in my box by you or anybody else.”
The Brexit Party was launched ahead of the European Parliament elections earlier this year, and won 29 of the UK’s 72 seats in Brussels. The Eurosceptic group has no representation in the House of Commons.
But Farage claims his party will be ready to fight all 650 Westminster seats in a snap election “by the end of next week”, warning the Conservatives and Labour that “this is the new politics”.
So what do we know about the candidates?
The 100 would-be MPs include teachers, civil engineers, an economist and a forklift truck driver, as well as “26 entrepreneurs, five Tory councillors, two people in showbiz and two UKIP councillors”, according to the Telegraph.
The Times identifies one candidate: Alan McCarthy, a sitting Labour councillor from Rochdale. He told the newspaper that after 40 years as a Labour member and 20 years as an elected official in an area that overwhelmingly voted Leave in 2016, his party “simply don’t represent the constituency any more”.
Why was nobody else named?
A party spokesperson “denied that the secrecy was down to concerns over their social media history, insisting that they had all been vetted”, says The Times. The party’s first leader, Catherine Blaiklock, was forced to resign in March over anti-Islam messages posted online before she took on the role.
However, this “point-blank” refusal to identify the candidates may raise questions about the “party’s readiness to fight a general election”, says the Telegraph.
Party sources said that all 650 general election candidates would be named en masse at a later date.
“So for now, the Brexit Party faithful had to make do with the pulsating excitement of seeing anonymous men and women walk, march and swagger on stage,” the paper concludes.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
August 2 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include a tariff self-own, rough times at the Trump golf course, and more
-
5 inexcusably hilarious cartoons about Ghislaine Maxwell angling for a pardon
Cartoons Artists take on the circle of life, Ghislaine's Island, and more
-
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: heavy metal wildman and lovable reality TV dad
In the Spotlight For Osbourne, metal was 'not the music of hell but rather the music of Earth, not a fantasy but a survival guide'
-
What difference will the 'historic' UK-Germany treaty make?
Today's Big Question Europe's two biggest economies sign first treaty since WWII, underscoring 'triangle alliance' with France amid growing Russian threat and US distance
-
Is the G7 still relevant?
Talking Point Donald Trump's early departure cast a shadow over this week's meeting of the world's major democracies
-
Angela Rayner: Labour's next leader?
Today's Big Question A leaked memo has sparked speculation that the deputy PM is positioning herself as the left-of-centre alternative to Keir Starmer
-
Reform UK's councillors are off to a rocky start
In the Spotlight Three weeks after sweeping the local elections, Nigel Farage's insurgent party is beginning to realise how hard the path from rhetoric to reality really is
-
Are we entering the post-Brexit era?
Today's Big Question Keir Starmer's 'big bet' with his EU reset deal is that 'nobody really cares' about Brexit any more
-
Is Starmer's plan to send migrants overseas Rwanda 2.0?
Today's Big Question Failed asylum seekers could be removed to Balkan nations under new government plans
-
Can Starmer sell himself as the 'tough on immigration' PM?
Today's Big Question Former human rights lawyer 'now needs to own the change – not just mouth the slogans' to win over a sceptical public
-
Where is the left-wing Reform?
Today's Big Question As the Labour Party leans towards the right, progressive voters have been left with few alternatives