Brexit Party candidate switches roles to stand in for Labour seat in York - a day before Nigel Farage reveals he won't be opposing Tory MPs

Nicholas Szkiler, the Brexit Party's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Conservative-held seat of York Outer, agreed to trade places with his York Central counterpart Mark Robinson this weekend.

On Monday, party leader Nigel Farage announced that his party would not run in the 317 constituencies the Conservatives won at the 2017 General Election.

This means that Mr Szkiler, who describes himself as a local entrepreneur and charity director who has lived and worked in North Yorkshire for almost 30 years, will continue to stand in Labour-held York Central.

But Mr Robinson, a farmer and businessman from near Thirsk, will no longer be a Brexit Party candidate. Mr Szkiler says he will now support him in his own campaign in York Central, where Labour's MP Rachael Maskell has an 18,575 majority.

Mr Szkiler said in a statement to The Yorkshire Post: "The announcement by Nigel Farage has meant that all Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for the Brexit Party in constituencies with a Conservative MP at the 2017 General Election were stood down.

"As the former PPC for York Outer, yesterday was the day when my journey to become a candidate would have ended.

"All of us were told from the beginning that the Brexit Party would put Country before Party and that we may be called to stand down if a 'Leave Alliance' were to happen with the Conservatives and MPs from other parties who strongly support a 'clean break' from the EU.

"Voters saw Nigel Farage put country before his young Brexit Party yesterday.

"Mark Robinson, the former PPC for York Central, and I met at the weekend to discuss changing constituencies and Mark felt strongly that if one of us would be called to step down, he would be the PPC to be withdrawn, thus allowing me to fight for the Labour held seat in York Central.

"I became the Brexit Party's PPC for York Central on Sunday afternoon - the day before we knew of Nigel Farage's decision.

"Not only have the British public seen that this party kept it’s promise that it would put the needs of the nation first, but that that individual candidates would be willing to make a sacrifice in a cause they believe in for the sake of a colleague they personally believe could win a seat in Parliament.

"These are the kind of men and women I want to stand alongside as we fight the most important General Election since the second World War."