Brexit Party leader opts out of UK election

Farage has unsuccessfully contested the UK parliamentary elections seven times and sits in the European Parliament. He said that he could "serve the cause (Brexit) better" by supporting his party's 600 candidates.

London: Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has announced he will not contest the forthcoming general election on December 12.

Farage said that he could "serve the cause (Brexit) better" by supporting his party's 600 candidates. "I don't want to be in politics for the rest of my life," he said.

Farage has unsuccessfully contested the UK parliamentary elections seven times and sits in the European Parliament, at present. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has termed Farage's decision as "weird".

"It's a bit weird to lead a political party that is contesting all or most of the seats and he is not offering himself" for the polls," Corbyn said. Last week, Farage urged British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to dump Brexit deal and form an alliance" with his party for the elections.

However, Johnson rejected the offer, saying that the "difficulty" of doing deals with "any other party" was that it "simply risks putting Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10". The UK is going to the polls on December 12 following a further delay to the UK's departure from the EU, to January 31, 2020.