Nigel Farage has been slapped down by Downing Street after publicly naming a bombshell price for a general election pact.
The Brexit Party leader demanded the Tories back a hard no-deal exit - and then withdraw from seats like Doncaster and Peterborough to give his outfit a clear run.
In return, he said, he would "stand aside and even support their candidates" in seats with a Tory chance of victory.
Mr Farage today took out a front-page newspaper advert demanding a pact if the Tories back a "clean break Brexit".
He is said to want the Tories to pull out of up to 90 Labour seats in the Midlands and North, which voted Leave but are represented by a Remain-supporting MP.
A source told The Sun he has even held back-channel talks about the plan with mysterious "people close to Boris" who are "not MPs or ministers".
Despite the reports, Downing Street moved to publicly slap down Mr Farage this morning.
A spokesperson told the Mirror Boris Johnson rules out any election pact in the future with the Brexit Party. They added: "[The] PM [has] been clear - no pact. Nothing has changed on this."
Twitter users immediately pointed out Mr Johnson has lied in the past, that Downing Street previously denied plans to prorogue parliament before it happened, and that No10 denied Mr Johnson wanted an election before he twice called a vote for one in Parliament.
Speaking on LBC Mr Farage outlined his strategy, saying: "The Brexit Party wants to leave the European Union. Boris Johnson says the Conservative Party want to leave the European Union. If we stand against each other, there is absolutely no way Boris Johnson can win a majority.
"But there is a very simple way through this.
"If Boris's Conservatives fight the next general election on a message that they want a clean-break-Brexit, then what we will do is we'll be prepared to stand aside and even support their candidates in seats where they've got the best chance of winning if they'll do the same for us in seats where we've got the best chance of winning.
"That really applies to areas of the country, particularly Labour seats where Labour have held the seat for decades, where the people voted Leave in the referendum and where the Labour MP is a Remainer.
"These are seats the Conservatives are never ever going to win for cultural reasons, but we've got a real chance."
Mr Farage said the "numbers" would determine which party would have the better chance in a constituency.
"For example I was in Doncaster last week in South Yorkshire. There you've got 80% of seats where people voted Leave by over 60%., seats that for decades have been Labour, seats that in the past Ukip came a strong second in, seats that in the European elections this year the Brexit Party topped the poll - the Conservatives are never going to win those seats but a Brexit Party candidate without a Tory Party candidate splitting the vote would have every chance of winning."
Boris Johnson tried twice to get Parliament to vote for an election before it was prorogued late on Monday night.
But Labour and the other opposition parties refused to back the plan saying they didn't trust the PM not to ram through no deal before an election.
Labour also know they would fare better if an election was held later in the year.
Meanwhile fresh divisions have opened up within the party after deputy leader Tom Watson for a second referendum before any general election.
Mr Watson will say that a single-issue Brexit election may not break the deadlock in Parliament - something only a second referendum can achieve with certainty.
He will also argue that if a referendum were to follow an election, then Labour should commit "unambiguously and unequivocally" to campaign for Remain.
His latest intervention puts him on a fresh collision course with Jeremy Corbyn , who has made clear his priority is for an election once Parliament has closed off a no-deal Brexit.
Addressing the TUC in Brighton on Tuesday, Mr Corbyn confirmed an incoming Labour government would hold a new referendum - with Remain and a "credible" option for Leave on the ballot paper - but he has yet to say which he would support.
The latest row follows a series of clashes between the two men over Mr Corbyn's reluctance to embrace a second referendum and the party's handling of complaints of anti-Semitism.
In his speech to the Creative Industries Federation, Mr Watson will say that while a Brexit election might at the moment seem "inevitable", such single issue campaigns were never desirable.
"Boris Johnson has already conceded that the Brexit crisis can only be solved by the British people," he will say.
"But the only way to break the Brexit deadlock once and for all is a public vote in a referendum. A general election might well fail to solve this Brexit chaos."
Responding to Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson's call for a second referendum before any General Election, Mr Farage said: "John McDonnell, Tom Watson, Emily Thornberry, Diane Abbott - virtually everybody in any senior position in the Labour Party is now an out and out Remainer.
"They want a second referendum. They want to campaign for remain. They have completely betrayed up to 5million Labour voters who voted Brexit and voted Labour in 2017 and did so on a Labour manifesto that they would respect the result and enact Brexit.
"They probably are the angriest group of voters in this country."
