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The UK is leaving the European Union soon and Theresa May failed to deliver the Brexit as promised, mainly because she could not get her deal approved by the UK parliament. Under these circumstances, why is winning the European election important to Brexit Party? By winning this, can they have a significant impact on Brexit? If they do, why didn't UKIP have such an impact on Brexit for last 3 years?

After winning the election, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said the victory sends a strong message to UK politicians. As the UK is leaving the European Union soon and assuming the Brexit party doesn’t have a significant impact on the Brexit deal (or no deal) in either the UK Parliament or the European parliament, what is the victory here?

What is going to change between now and October? And what’s the strong message this result sends to U.K. politics?

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  • These last two questions are still a bit broad / opinion based. The first part could be a good question, especially when aimed at statements made by the Brexit party.
    – JJJ
    Commented May 27, 2019 at 18:41

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There are several questions here...

By winning this can they [Brexit Party] have a significant impact on Brexit?

No, in that they're not in power; but also yes, because they won the EU election in the UK. In the process, unhappy Tory voters have sent a rather clear message to their MPs that they'd like them to get on with Brexit and move on to other things. (But see below.)

If they do why UKIP, didn’t have such an impact for last 3 years on Brexit?

Farage left UKIP after the Brexit referendum, and the party has become a weird extreme right outfit that lost its soul when it began to accept racists like Tommy Robinson amongst its senior leadership.

After winning the election, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said the victory sends a strong message to UK politicians.

Except for the fact that, when you combine the votes of clear-cut Remain and Leave parties, and agree with the notion that this was the de facto referendum, well... Remain wins. If you fold Tory votes into Brexit and Labour votes into Remain (a dubious idea in both cases IMO, but it's probably a good enough approximation), the result is even more clearcut: the UK wants to Remain. So the message is very strong indeed. But for Remain.

As the UK is leaving the European Union soon and assuming the Brexit party doesn’t have a significant impact on the Brexit deal (or no deal) in either the UK Parliament or the European parliament, what is the victory here?

It's not at all clear that the UK is leaving the EU anytime soon. The victory is that they humiliated the Tories (as in "get on with it", basically) and came in a strong lead in the EU elections.

What is going to change between now and October?

Not much in all likelihood. There's going to be a new PM, and that's the only thing that's certain.

There already are signals by senior Tories that a PM who would pursue a no-deal Brexit will get kicked out of office. And the EU has made it crystal clear that it's this deal, period -- and the UK isn't in a position to renegotiate. So assuming new snap elections don't occur it's going to be about whether a new PM will be able to (finally?) sell the current deal to Parliament and/or the public, or convince the nation as a whole that actually, Brexit isn't going to happen. Or just kick the can down the road.

If snap elections do occur it's really anyone's guess. FWIW mine would be that the UK would end up with an election entirely focused on Brexit and it would turn into a wholesale referendum (again). And I'd stick my neck out and suggest that either Article 50 would end up revoked in such a scenario, or the resulting Brexit deal would be so soft that it would make Brexiters even angrier.

Side note on the latter point: May's deal is the hardest possible Brexit deal based on the redlines she gave the EU and what the EU is willing to accept without putting itself in jeopardy. IMO there is just no way a new PM will get a better deal, and the EU has also made very clear that even in the event of a no-deal Brexit a prerequisite to even beginning to negotiate a future trade relationship is to accept what's in the Brexit deal -- including the controversial backstop.

And what’s the strong message this result sends to U.K. politics?

Purportedly the message is that there's a strong block behind a no deal Brexit. But as we've seen above, it's only purportedly. In reality, there's a strong block behind no Brexit. So this is just spin.

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    Even the idea that unhappy Tory voters have sent a message to Conservative Leaders by voting Farage is potentially inaccurate (curse you secret ballots). A pro Remain alternative analysis here argues most Brexit votes come from 2014 UKIP. Though how many of those were unhappy Tories in the first place...
    – Jontia
    Commented May 27, 2019 at 20:26
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    @Jontia: while I wholeheartedly agree that former UKIP votes went to Farage's new Brexit party, I'd put forward that the real story here is more about Tory voters defecting to the Brexit party (which is a message) than it is about UKIP voters following Farage around (which was a no brainer except for the odd racist). Commented May 27, 2019 at 20:39
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    @HelloWorld: FWIW at this point my view as a continental European is that the the UK should get on with it, take May's deal, and rejoin the EU at the first opportunity. That way, UK Brexiters would get to see and feel how much they've been lied to, and it would hopefully silence anti-EU voices for good.. Commented May 28, 2019 at 2:35
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    "If you fold... Labour votes into Remain" Why would you do that? Labour are pro-brexit.
    – Richard
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 14:43
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    @Richard: Insofar as I've been following, 80% of Labour voters support Remain, and Corbyn announced today that Labour now officially supports a 2nd referendum. Commented May 28, 2019 at 17:53

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