Nigel Farage announced on Monday that he will run as an MP for Reform UK.
Reform UK announced Nigel Farage will become its leader and will also run as an MP in Clacton, providing a fresh electoral threat to the Tories.
In an official statement on social media last week, the former leader of the Brexit Party had ruled out standing in the upcoming general election, saying that is “not the right time.”
However, he said that he has now “changed his mind” and that he will run in the Tory-held seat in Essex from Tuesday.
The honorary president of Reform will make his eighth attempt to enter Parliament, saying that he made the decision on Sunday afternoon.
‘Revolt’
Mr. Farage said he will surprise everybody and that the party is planning a “revolt.”
“A turning of our backs on the political status quo. It doesn’t work. Nothing in this country works any more,” he said.
“Difficult though it is, I can’t let down those millions of people, I simply can’t do it, it’d be wrong.”
Asked why he changed his mind, he said, “It’s allowed you know, it’s not always a sign of weakness.”
“It could potentially be a sign of strength,” he said, adding that he believes there is “every chance” that Reform get more votes than the Tories in the general election on July 4.
“So I am going to stand in this election. I’ll be launching my candidacy at midday tomorrow in the Essex seaside town of Clacton,” he said.
Labour
Multiple polls have indicated that the Conservative Party could lose at the next general election, with forecasts seeing Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer entering Downing Street as prime minister.Mr. Farage said that “Labour have won the election. That is not a contest.”
He said there is a “rejection of the political class going on in this country“ and believes that the ”Red Wall is gone, they are not coming back.”
He said he had been left too little time to prepare when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a snap general election and had decided the “rational thing to do” was to “do my bit as I put it supporting the country around the party.”
At the press conference, he said: “I genuinely believe we can get more votes in this election than the Conservative Party. They are on the verge of total collapse.”
He was hawkish on Conservative Party’s policy on immigration.
Mr. Farage said: “We’re worried and we’re fearful of many of the impacts that we’ve seen. We find what happened after those local elections just a few weeks ago, of candidates winning in Leeds, in Burnley, in Bradford and elsewhere, standing shouting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ standing shouting ‘we are coming to get you.’
He said that “the birth of sectarian politics in our country“ is caused by ”massively irresponsible immigration policies.”
“And it was the Labour Party that opened the door, and who would have believed that a Conservative Party would have accelerated it,” he said.
Reform is standing in 630 seats across England, Scotland, and Wales. Mr. Tice is running in the constituency of Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire, where Conservative MP Matt Warman won the majority in the 2019 general election.
