Nigel Farage sips champagne at the Polo with Georgia Toffolo after ‘costing Tories by-election win’ and warns Boris will have to do a deal with him for Conservatives to stand aside in the north to let his Brexit party win seats in Labour heartlands

• Nigel Farage believes an election in inevitable and called on Boris to make a deal 
• He was spotted enjoying some champagne in Montenegro with Georgia Toffolo
• Mr Farage was speaking after the Brecon by-election result which Lib Dems won
• He believes the Tories and the Brexit Party are splitting the vote between them
• Mr Farage called on Tories to stand down in some northern seats to stop Labour 

Nigel Farage claims Boris Johnson will be forced to do a deal with his party when he realises he cannot win a general election because the Tories and the Brexit Party are splitting the vote. 

The Brexit Party leader, who was spotted enjoying champagne in Montenegro with Made in Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo, has called on the Conservatives to stand down in some seats in the north to allow his party to win them from Labour. 

Mr Farage warned of an Autumn general election and pointed out that the recent by-election results in Brecon and Peterborough showed that his party and the Conservatives were sharing the Brexit vote between them. 

He suggested that he could challenge Labour MP Yvette Cooper in Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford and called on Mr Johnson to work with his party and allow them to win seats in the Labour heartlands.

Ms Cooper’s constituency, a Labour stronghold, voted 69 per cent for Leave but the MP is a Remainer and Mr Farage believes he could win the seat for Brexiteers. 

The Brexit Party has faced criticism for splitting the Brecon by-election vote, which saw the Tories narrowly lose their seat to the Liberal Democrats.

Nigel Farage was spotted enjoying champagne in Montenegro with Made in Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo

Mr Farage is thought to be on holiday in Europe with his family but was seen enjoying champagne with Ms Toffolo

They were joined at the VIP section of the ‘Polo in the Port’ event in Tivat, Montenegro by Ms Toffolo’s boyfriend George Cottrell

Disgraced expenses cheat Tory Chris Davies, whose conviction and expulsion via a recall petition forced the summer vote, lost his Brecon seat to the Lib Dems

They would have retained the seat if half of the people who voted for the Brexit Party voted for them instead. 

However, Mr Farage has rejected criticism of his party and pointed out that the Brexit Party lost the Peterborough by-election last month by an even smaller margin. 

Labour won the seat by less than a 1,000 votes from Mr Farage’s party, while more than 7,000 voted for the Tories.  

An indignant Mr Farage told the Times: ‘Just look at Peterborough, where the Conservatives split our vote. If the judgment is we cost the Tories in Brecon, exactly the same applies to us in Peterborough. 

‘The Brexit Party only exists because the Conservatives failed to deliver on March 29th. On current form, I have little faith in Boris delivering on October 31. That means we’re here to stay.’ 

The former UKIP leader is convinced their will be a general election in the Autumn, which may be called if Boris Johnson loses a vote of no confidence or if he decides a larger majority is required to finalise Brexit. 

He said: ‘Do I think there’ll be a general election? Yes. Do I think there could be two general elections within six months? Quite probably.’ 

Cottrell had previously worked for Mr Farage as an aide before he was sensationally arrested in front of the then-UKIP leader

Mr Farage has called on Boris Johnson to stand his party down in some northern seats, so the Brexit Party can beat Labour in its heartlands

Boris Johnson (pictured at Downing Street) has crashed down to earth after the by-election reduced his Commons majority to just one

Mr Farage is thought to be on holiday in Europe with his family but was seen enjoying champagne with Ms Toffolo.

They were joined at the VIP section of the ‘Polo in the Port’ event in Tivat, Montenegro by Ms Toffolo’s boyfriend George Cottrell, who had previously worked for Mr Farage as an aide. 

Cottrell was sensationally arrested and led away in handcuffs by IRS agents in July 2016 while with Farage, who maintained afterwards that he did not know about his background.

He spent eight months in a US jail after being caught on the ‘dark web’, offering to launder the money through his offshore accounts to what he thought was a gang of drug traffickers. 

Before his arrest, Cottrell ran Farage’s private office, handled all media enquiries for the former UKIP leader and was also one of his closest aides, playing a key role in the Brexit campaign.

Mr Farage distanced himself from the aide after his arrest but they appeared locked in conversation in Montenegro. 

The photos come as the Brexit Party leader insisted his party would make a comeback in the polls. 

There is a huge degree of uncertainty about the impact of an electoral pact. But an Ipsos MORI poll found this week that the combined vote share of the Tories and Brexit Party was 43 per cent. With Labour on 24 per cent and the Lib Dems on 20 per cent, the Electoral Calculus website suggests a Brexit alliance would have an enormous 268 majority in the Commons

Analysis by political strategist James Kanagasooriam for Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday found a Remain Alliance between the Lib Dems, Greens, Plaid Cymru and independents could increase the number of explicitly anti-Brexit MPs in England and Wales from 27 to 66.

The Brexit Party were the big winners in the European Parliament elections, with 31 per cent of the vote. 

However, the party’s fortunes have reversed recently with the appointment of Boris Johnson seeing a surge in support for the Conservatives, according to polls. 

Mr Farage believes this is unlikely to last ‘once the public realise he won’t be delivering a No Deal Brexit’.

He said: ‘The fantasy is that we leave on the 31st of October and Boris lives up to what he promised. But I don’t see it.’ 

In the interview, Mr Farage also admitted that he would be interested in the role of UK ambassador to the US, though he insisted he still had ‘unfinished’ business in Britain.

He said: ‘I’d be a damn sight better than the last one. It would be great fun and I’d love it. But there is a job to finish here.’

The former UKIP leader also expressed his admiration for Donald Trump, discussing the recent scandal where the US president told four congresswomen to ‘go home’.

Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson (right) joined victorious candidate Jane Dodds in Brecon today

In theory, the Tories would have comfortably won the Brecon by-election if they were in a pact with the Brexit Party 

He compared watching his ally’s ‘pretty brisk style’ to being a child watching daleks on Doctor Who.  

Mr Farage said: ‘I thought, ‘Dear, oh dear, oh dear’. You realise, 48 hours on, it was genius because what’s happened is the Democrats gather round the Squad, which allows him to say, ‘Oh look, the Squad are the centre of the Democratic Party’.

‘He’s remarkably good at what he does.

‘He does things his way. But he is a remarkably effective operator.’

The interview comes as senior Tories warned yesterday that an election showdown with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party would be a ‘massive own goal’ – after Boris Johnson suffered a shattering defeat at the hands of the ‘Remainer alliance’. 

The PM’s honeymoon came to a crashing halt after the Lib Dems triumphed in Brecon & Radnorshire, slashing his Commons majority to just one.

Jane Dodds overcame a Conservative majority of 8,000 to take the Welsh seat by 1,400 votes.

Tory ex-MP Chris Davies, who stood again despite his conviction for expenses fraud having triggered the contest, held on to second.

But Conservative chairman James Cleverly complained that the Lib Dems only won due to a ‘dirty deal’ with the Greens and Plaid Cymru, which saw the pro-EU rivals stand aside to give Ms Dodds a clear run.

In contrast, the Brexit Party did field a candidate. Mr Cleverly pointed out that that although they only received 10 per cent of the vote, combined with the Tories it would have been more than enough to have delivered victory.

Prominent Eurosceptic MP Steve Baker today pleaded with Mr Farage not to split the Brexit vote by fielding candidates in vulnerable seats.

‘It is becoming obvious to all now that the Brexit Party standing against the Conservative Party would produce a massive own goal,’ he said.

There is a huge degree of uncertainty about how a pact would function, and what kind of results it would produce at an election.

But as an indication, an Ipsos MORI poll found this week that the combined vote share of the Tories and Brexit Party was 43 per cent.

With Labour on 24 per cent and the Lib Dems on 20 per cent, the Electoral Calculus website suggests a Brexit alliance would have an enormous 268 majority in the House of Commons.

Mr Johnson has flatly dismissed the idea of a pact – but one MP told MailOnline today: ‘He is going to say that, isn’t he?’

WHO IS GEORGE COTTRELL? 

George Cottrell, 25,  spent eight months in jail for offering to launder money for drug traffickers

Toff’s boyfriend-of-five months is a 25-year-old millionaire who is known by Farage’s inner circle as ‘Posh George’. 

Cottrell studied at the exclusive £40,000 a year Malvern College which was bankrolled by his family, who are said to be worth £300million.  

He is the nephew of Lord Hesketh, a hereditary peer and former Conservative Party treasurer who defected to UKIP in 2011.

Cottrell’s mother, Fiona, is the daughter of Lord Manton, a wealthy Yorkshire farmer and landowner who died in 2003.

She once dated Prince Charles and was the Penthouse ‘pet of the month’ in October 1973, under the pseudonym Frances Cannon, describing herself as ‘daughter of a landowner’. 

His wealthy businessman father Mark attended Gordonstoun with Prince Andrew.

After leaving school early and not going on to university, Cottrell entered into a career in private banking where he became known for having a canny eye for making money on stock markets and currency trading.

He shot to prominence during the Brexit campaign, working for Farage for free and becoming a trusted member of his inner circle.

He shot to prominence during the Brexit campaign, working for Farage for free and becoming part of his trusted inner circle where he’s known as ‘Posh George’

He is the nephew of Lord Hesketh, a hereditary peer and former Conservative Party treasurer who defected to UKIP in 2011

Cottrell was spectacularly arrested and led away in handcuffs by IRS agents in July 2016 while with Farage, who maintained afterwards that he did not know about his background, at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. 

They were returning to London after attending the Republican National Convention where they also met with Donald Trump’s aides, just three weeks after the Brexit vote. 

He spent eight months in a US jail after being caught on the ‘dark web’, offering to launder the money through his offshore accounts to what he thought was a gang of drug traffickers. 

They were actually IRS agents carrying out an undercover operation.

Before his arrest, Cottrell ran Farage’s private office, handled all media enquiries for the former UKIP leader and was also one of his closest aides, playing a key role in the Brexit campaign.

Court documents at the time of his arrest in America show that Cottrell exchanged messages from London with IRS agents masquerading as drug dealers in Phoenix through an encrypted platform called Cryptocat. 

The 25-year-old has been dating Toff (pictured together in April) for five months

They said that they wanted to launder around £40,000 to £120,000 in drug money each month.

The documents stated that Cottrell, using the alias Bill, told the agents that he could do this for them anonymously via his offshore accounts and met with what he thought was drug dealers in Las Vegas in 2014.

Cottrell then told the undercover agents to send £15,500 to an associate in Colorado who would move the money into his bank accounts before transferring it back to them. 

The court indictment claimed that Cottrell intended to pocket the money.

About a week later, Cottrell threatened to report the money laundering and drug trafficking to authorities unless the agents agreed to pay him 130 bitcoin, at the time worth £62,000.

Cottrell said in his plea agreement during his March 2017 hearing that he ‘explained various ways criminal proceeds could be laundered,’ including ways to transfer large amounts of cash out of the United States to avoid reporting requirements and disguising proceeds from criminal activity as legitimate business income for tax purposes.

The court documents also claimed that Cottrell had a ‘serious, years-long gambling problem, which inherently suggests a strong possibility of irrational risk taking’. 

However, his lawyers say 20 of the 21 charges in the original indictment were dropped.  

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