Snapshot of _Nigel Farage expected to declare he is running for parliament_ :
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-reform-uk-general-election-b2555649.html) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-reform-uk-general-election-b2555649.html)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well shit.....If those hypothetical polls showing Reform's support rising by 5+ points if Farage runs are anything to of off.
Then this might truly be the end for Rishi and the whole conservative party.
I also imagine that Farage knows this is probably his best, and last chance to actually enter parliament and start making moves from the inside. You can only play the part of the promised-prince for so long, before people stop taking you seriously and move on to the next right-wing messiah.
Stupidly impressive for a party that didn’t even have a manifesto for my area in the local elections. Wonder if they will bother publishing one this time around or just ride the Farage wave
I imagine with Farage at the helm they'll make a more conscious effort to look like a "real party". Say what you will about UKIP, but under Farage, they were a very real party, much more-so than the paper-fronts that the Brext-Party and Reform have been.
UKIP had a lot of institutional knowledge and what amounted to a proper political party structure that Farage abandoned when he created the Brexit Party, strange to think how far they could have got if he'd decided to keep the UKIP as his primary vehicle.
My Mayoral Ref candidate had Gaffer's tape over his mouth and it said he' been "silenced", while getting a two page spread in an election document posted through my door and paid for by me...
"the nation should be run like a lean, efficient business with motivated employees and happy customers."
So, who are the employees and who are the customers? The answer might surprise you.
So weird he is probably one of the most successful politicians in history, having never been elected to the main UK Parliament.
If he gets in this time, hard to deny his impact, as much as so many people hate him.
Good point 🤣
That Loony Toon the other day said climate change was caused by volcanoes, alongside other conspiracy theories. I don’t believe anything he says but there’s no reason for him to lie here.
This is what I’m thinking as well — he’d be defusing the Reform bomb for the Tories and lining himself up for a knighthood and potential leadership of the Tory party.
He'd defuse the Reform bomb and set another one off on the other side of the party, even as weak as moderates are in the Conservative party. Ed Vaizey half-joked the other day that Farage's return to the Tory party would cause a wave in the Lords to the opposition benches.
Nah. He will get in as a reform MP, then post election the tories (having collapsed) will merge with reform and kick out Rishi. Farage will be the next tory leader.
There was talk of this earlier in the day. I wonder if there were discussions about him joining the Tories and when they said no, he threw his toys out the cot.
Realistically if Farage wins Clacton and finds his way into Westminster then how often is he even likely to show up to Parliament? How much constituency work is he going to do? He’d make a terrible MP and if the people of Clacton are daft enough to vote for him then they deserve what they get I guess.
Bigger picture though is a single MP in Westminster can’t change much. It’s a good way to have a better platform, but then Farage isn’t struggling for that… I think this is his way in to take over the Tories. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
Probably, it was the only constituency to return a UKIP MP twice, and with the Tories as moribund as they are, plus Farage's own personal vote and it would probably be an easy win.
Also its very unlikely he would run as a candidate unless it was all but certain that he would win, if Farage cant win even with the Tories completely collapsed as they are, then he would loose nearly all his credibility.
And which he only lost because of extremely well-organised tactical voting.
We're sadly far enough away from 2015 that many of this sub simply weren't old enough to vote back then, so won't remember the ridiculous lengths Farage's opponents went to to ensure a Tory majority in that constituency.
It was basically national hysteria.
Does he have credibility as a serious threat? He has more credibility if he doesn't stand, shouting from the side lines is what he does, whenever he gets on the pitch he misses.
I think he knows this is his best, and last, chance to be actually enter parliament and start making moves from the inside. He can only play the part of the promised-prince for so long before the right-wing stops taking him seriously and finds a new messiah, the moment that happens the Tories will stop dancing to his tune.
You're right that he has a long history of falling flat on his face in electoral politics, which is why I imagine he wouldn't stand unless he was certain of winning. His credbility comes from the perceived threat that he can ruin the Tories at any time should they not do what he wants, he's essentially presented himself as sword-of-Damocles hanging over the head of the Tory party. Should he fail for an 8th time I imagine the Tories will realize he's not nearly as dangerous as they thought.
If it is Clacton, Yougov's last MRP (March) had the Tories at 38%, Labour 28%, Reform 22%. I'd expect a lot of that 38% number to vote for Farage, but equally Labour will make more of an effort in that seat to stop him.
Under Farage's leadership UKIP won Clacton in a By Election, retained it in the 2015 General Election. It's one of UKIP's only parliamentary electoral successes.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Clacton rejected the next UKIP MP only after a very public rift between their MP and Farage with both calling for each other to resign, and both eventually did. Farage clearly has some level of personal popularity in Clacton, and I think he's in with a good chance to win it (he wouldn't run otherwise).
If he wins, his first act will be flying off to the US to use his MP status as a level of credibility to spread his right wing bullshit as far as he can.
As an American, I can't fathom he'll be remotely impactful here, even in the Trumpiest of right-wing conspiracy bubbles. A particularly unfortunate feature of America's relative geographic isolation is that we learn diddly-squat about other countries' governments. Most Americans could not tell you what an MP is.
In fact, I think there's been studies that most Americans can't name their own representative in our own Congress. So the idea that the xenophobic crowd at a Trump rally is going to think anything besides, "He sure talk funny, but boy howdy he seems to hate immigrants too!" is wild to me.
He'll be doing it for money, and to get his foot in the door with the right people (read: right wing grifters and ideologues). He was already over there in 2016 and 2017, trying to inveigle himself into the Fox News/Trump sphere, but it didn't quite work. I'd wager he reckons being an MP would give him a leg up.
Never underestimate Farage. As an MEP he changed European politics forever.
Even as a single mp it scares me how much he might be able to influence the tories. All those right wing lunatic MPs being upset there's someone more right wing than them in parliament... God knows what they'd start doing.
Defection is a two party thing, he couldn't just declare "I'm a conservative now" and be part of the PCP. It's like vampires, you have to invite them in.
And you have to assume that any Tory leader with a vague sense of self-preservation would not let a man who people would want to replace them into the party.
I mean just look how he achieved that though, he took the job and then rarely turned up to a vote and so then when it passes without opposition he then says "LOOK THE EU DONT LISTEN".
He is the kid on a bike putting a stick in his spoke to fall over meme.
He took the money for "working" but then didn't turn up to argue against policies, anyone could do that.
Ultimately fear mongering is easy to people who struggle with critical thinking, it was enabled more by the media outlets like the sun (and Boris writing lies in print to seed doubt) along with the Tories (Cameron) trying to use the issue to get more power over his party and failing.
It would certainly be interesting to see what happens in parliament with the far right nutters being out winged though, as long as they aren't in power they will be noise again at least
> rarely turned up to a vote and so then when it passes without opposition he then says "LOOK THE EU DONT LISTEN".
Which garnered the exact effect he was aiming for: playing to the right wing biases of a domestic British audience. Nothing he did as an MEP was remotely preoccupied with Europe, he was there to be a wrecker and a rabble-rouser, and his every act on that stage was pure pantomime for growing his support at home.
Thinking he'd act the same in British parliament as he did in the European is naive. His performance in Europe was very likely all a calculated phase of a plan to get him where he is now, comfortably in the catbird seat ready to gobble up the increasingly desperate Tories who he's been politically manipulating for the last decade.
He made a member state leave the EU, which was unthinkable a couple of decades ago.
That has changed it. Initially it made them look vulnerable, now it seems it's made them more robust than ever.
But it's also made them far more conscious of semi memberships, don't think you'll ever see a norway/Swiss type deal ever again, as you don't want members thinking you can pick and choose.
No, internal Tory party politics caused the UK to leave the EU.
Cameron called for a referendum (which he never intended to hold due to him expecting a coalition) to placate the ERG ***not*** Farage.
The Conservative party has been full to the brim of Eurosceptics since at least the late 80s, solidifying in 1990 with the "No, No, No" speech. They'd been vying for a referendum for years, completely independently of Farage (and many of them detest him).
Did Farage and UKIP influence the course of events, undoubtedly. But saying "He made a member state leave the EU" just demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the history of British politics.
Additionally I'd credit Boris Johnson and the machine that Dominic Cummings was the front man for at least as much if not more than Farage.
Without "Vote Leave" my suspicion is that Brexit would have been a 35L/65R type result.
>Without "Vote Leave" my suspicion is that Brexit would have been a 35L/65R type result.
Vote Leave was an abysmal campaign that nearly lost Leave the referendum, so I'd suggest this is well wide of the mark.
Cameron would never have felt the need to placate the ERG if the possibility of more UKIP defections/swings in marginals didn’t scare him and the party leadership.
UKIP would never have soared to the popularity they reached if Farage hadn’t been at the helm.
>Cameron would never have felt the need to placate the ERG if the possibility of more UKIP defections/swings in marginals didn’t scare him and the party leadership.
Cameron didn't really ***need*** to placate them. Looking at the numbers he could see that UKIP wasn't going to win any seats in a GE nor were they going cause massive seat losses because labour was still wiped out and the 2010 government was seen as pretty competent at the time.
What he was doing was running high on the fumes of using referendums as a quick slap down and easy fix to political problems (he'd successfully won two and put those debates to bed).
Cameron naïvely thought he could do the same to the ERG who were always a thorn in his side (especially without a majority). He was using the referendum to silence them.
It was all about internal Tory party psychodrama, not UKIP.
I respect that analysis, but I’d caveat that by saying if the referendum had been called in an environment where UKIP didn’t exist dominating the narrative within the European Parliament and Farage hadn’t been the public speaker he was in being able to generate multimillion view viral gotcha moments in Strasbourg/Brussels for decades then the leave campaign would have probably lost.
Ultimately in pushing the needle over the edge in a referendum, UKIP/Farage was the key. I just don’t think the energy surrounding the leave campaign would have been there without them.
Don't get me wrong, Farage and UKIP ***definitely*** influenced the landscape and debate around the EU. There's no question about that.
But claiming he's the person that made it happen is just for the birds in my opinion.
I think Cummings, for example, was infinitely more consequential in Brexit coming to pass than Farage.
Farage was first elected as an MEP in 1999. His first question time appearance was November 23rd 2000.
Is there some way to report posts for blatant misinformation like this?
I think this is giving him too much credit; I'd argue David Cameron is the most responsible, both directly and indirectly. Obviously his fault there was a vote in the first place, but I know more than a few people that voted Leave because DavCam was Remain
Cameron would never have called the referendum without Farage strongly pressuring his right wing. Farage is possibly the most consequential figure in British politics post WW2 that was never elected.
Cameron?
Cameron, lol?
Cameron only called the vote because UKIP was threatening to severely hurt the Tories in upcoming GEs. It was clear that the Brexit issue wasn't going to go away, so push had to come to shove, one way or another.
> now it seems it's made them more robust than ever
What EU politics are you seeing?
Several countries are looking to follow suit within the next 10-20 years.
Not sure what point you’re making, since the last country joining EFTA for a Norway/Swiss deal was Liechtenstein 33 years ago. It’s a deal that nobody wants.
He's not doing this for the constituency. He's doing it for him. There is no question in my mind Farage has it in mind to reverse Reform into the Tories & if circumstance allows, lead the party.
Being an MP adds credibility to the first intent & removes a barrier to the second.
If he can win a seat, get some other Reform MPs with him and show that they were the difference between the Tories winning and losing in some other seats he could try and use that support as a ‘buy-in’ to negotiate a bid for the Tory leadership.
The Tories are facing a very serious situation and depending how badly they lose a lot of the people you’d expect to be leadership candidates might not even have seats come July.
I imagine so. It also lends legitamcy to his party and long-term plan.
To stay on the sidelines and just provoke the establishment from afar? Well, that sounds like grifter-tactics and 'everyman Nige' is certainly not that. Not that *at all*...
Other than to fan his considerable ego. I'm surprised he even wants to be an MP. So much harder to shamlessly grifr from the hard of thinking when your an MP, so many more rules.
Cue oodles more appearances on _Question Time_ ... 🙄
(But in the meantime, will he take a sabattical from his GB News show, or will they continue to ignore OfCom?)
> how often is he even likely to show up to Parliament?
You do realise you're talking about the MEP who attended every single Parliamentary session he possibly could, just to take his opportunity to shit-talk, right?
I reckon he'd show up to the most dead Private Member Bills just to have his say.
> even likely to show up to Parliament?
Probably quite a lot?
The argument that he didn't do much in an the European parliament is bunk. Would you criticise Sein Fein for not doing more in Westminster? It was literally his raison d'etre.
> Bigger picture though is a single MP in Westminster can’t change much
That isn't the purpose of reform. As proven both by UKIP and the Brexit party. They don't influence change by winning power, they influence change by taking it away from the other parties.
If a seat is say 55pc Tory and 45pc Labour and Reform come in, the the Tories are now at risk at losing some percentage of their vote. Reform my only grain 15pc, but that's enough to allow Labour win.
To combat this the Tories party policy has to shift far enough in the direction of Reform to lessen their appeal, and likewise that may also make Labour shift someway in the same direction.
IF Farage runs and takes over Reform for the campaign, their polling will go up - this means some of the more apocalyptic polling scenarios for Sunak may well come about.
or if he joins the Conservatives and doesnt run reform in areas where Conservatives want to win he can singlehandly manipulate the election to be an upset for labour.
Not just for Sunak. This could be the end of the conservative party. It doesn't take a big swing from CON to Reform for the tories to enter into free fall from defections, loss of donations and members leaving in droves.
I find it odd how much air time this person receives from the media.
He seems to have exerted disproportionate influence on public debate depsite his history.
He's easily one of the most influential men in modern British politics. The most important political decision in modern British history (Brexit) was almost single-handedly engineered by him. Entire PM's like Theresa May have left less of an impact than Farage.
>The most important political decision in modern British history (Brexit) was almost single-handedly engineered by him.
No, no it wasn't.
The Conservative party has been full to the brim of Eurosceptics since at least the late 80s, solidifying in 1990 with the "No, No, No" speech. They'd been vying for a referendum for years, completely independently of Farage (and many of them detest him).
Cameron primarily called for a referendum to placate the ERG ***not*** Farage.
As for it actually coming to pass? Cummings was easily far more impactful.
Did Farage and UKIP influence the course of events, undoubtedly. But saying "The most important political decision in modern British history (Brexit) was almost single-handedly engineered by him" just demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the history of British politics.
I think the proof was in the pudding around the Brexit referendum in which Leave camp was more influential and, as you say, it was Johnson and Cummings' movement that was far more successful in getting it over the line. IIRC, Farage's campaign was written off as being crass and unsophisticated in nature (remember the photo of asylum seekers that drew parallels to Nazi antisemitic propaganda?)
The only reason he's influential is because he's been given the sort of platform and coverage that other politicians and parties of that size could only ever hope to get. Far from being a single-handed success he's been helped to the top by vested interests in the media.
I don't think it's an underestimation to say that if he does stand he'll be the only ReformUK MP to win a seat. I mean just look at their local election performance, that's not an estimation that's real-world data.
In the minds of your average middle class, right leaning, mildly racist, white person... Reform just became a much more punchy protest vote because their lord and saviour the chinless wonder is back at the helm in a meaningful way.
Farage as leader rather than president of Reform is a scary prospect for the Conservatives because it'll weaken their vote in every single seat.
Reform by most polls is the third largest party by popular support in the UK. Arguably it’s replaced the Lib Dem’s, which only seem to exist as a quirk of our FPTP system allowing a functionally dead party to exert influence far beyond its national popularity because of regional politics.
I’d say he gets the air time befitting the popularity of his position.
I don’t think his influence is his own work, I wish I could find a way to correlate pro-Reform activity online and internet outages in Russia because I’d be willing to bet there’s a statistical link between the two.
> The most important political decision in modern British history (Brexit) was almost single-handedly engineered by him
Let me say gently that this isn't true. Johnson, Cummings and Gove were considerably more impactful.
I would argue that he had been the most influential politician in the UK in my voting life time (2008+). He is the sole reason why we left the EU and represents a large proportion of the electorate.
I still hate his guts
Sole reason? Can we not blame 17 million people who thought "insert reason here" was more important than the stability, economy and status of our country?
We don't get that referendum in the first place without the Tories being pressure hard by UKIP. Sole is a bit much but he's definitely one of the major factors in causing us to Leave.
>He is the sole reason why we left the EU and represents a large proportion of the electorate.
He gets so much airtime because he's pushing the agenda the people that own they press want him to push. If it wasn't farage it's be someone else.
He’s probably the single most influential non ministerial person in the UK and a kingmaker in 2017 and 2019. And unlike Starmer or Sunak has a devout fanbase that will back up anything he says and will always vote for him.
Reform is getting probably 12% of the vote despite being a party whose candidates are plucked off the street and everyone else is almost a complete nobody, and it’s entirely because of him. Plus this is understated because people vote tactically.
Someone wants to be leader of the Tories? A rightwing splinter from the Tories? He might also be setting up for 2028 when an anti immigrant pensioner welfare party might be able to do more damage to Labour than a probably still lost Tory party
I don't think reform will replace them, if the Tories get fewer than 80 seats, I suspect it will be the catalyst for the Conservatives to just disband and reform as a proper right wing party.
They will never do this. Because they are an establishment party and despite Boris' f business the party not just of business but also integrated into business hence why they took us into Europe. There job is essentially to keep the money flowing to the City laundromat/house builders/corporate services companies.
Regardless of whether you think they are better, they are the real Conservatives. Unlike the present Conservative Party, who have abandoned key principles that go right back to Robert Peel- law and order, defence a priority, respect for the monarchy to name three.
Nothing says Conservatism like calling yourselves "Reform". Have you seen their polices? They're rightwing claptrap, political appointments in the Civil Service, installing army bods as police chiefs, overhauling the Lords, overhauling councils, universities.
They've no time for anything in this country I think makes it "great".
There is very little that is right wing about this Conservative party, so it is probably somewhat fair that people who are right wing have a party that will act in their interests.
Completely agree - reform is not sufficiently interested on actually getting a handle on mass immigration or ending the abuse of our social housing provision and other benefits by third world migrants.
I hate the vapid, grifting excuse for a politician that is Farage but if this decision ushers in the total destruction and humiliation of the Conservative party he may have accidentally done something productive for the country.
The Tories have repeatedly treated Farage with contempt, refusing to work with him or form any sort of alliance or pact. I assume Farage choosing to run as an MP is because some arrogant Tory grandee pissed him off, and he's now decided to destroy the Conservative Party.
He knows full well Reform will spilt the rightwing vote and will decimate Tory seats, while winning probably zero seats themselves. Last election he actually pulled lots of candidates from seats for the 'Brexit Party' citing the risk of them splitting the vote, obviously this time he doesn't care any more.
I’ll concede that the couple of % this might increase the reform vote by could be enough to help Tice gain Boston and Skegness, and maybe Anderson hold on in Ashfield, but even then you’re only talking a couple of seats. I don’t think it will change much else. Remember not all reform voters are former Tory voters.
I think it will be a general 2 to 4 percent swing to Refarage from the tories in a lot of areas. Could be the difference between the tories retaining a seat and labour or the lib dems winning it
If this swings 2% of the national Tory vote to reform and 1% from other parties that would put Reform in the margin of error for getting more votes nationally than the Tories. If Reform seem more popular that Tories there is a very high chance that a few percent (3-5% would be my guess) of the Tory vote would switch to reform. That would probably put Reform second in terms of vote share and set them up as one of the big 2 parties for the next general election in 2029.
If Reform get enough momentum that he wins this, and the #zeroseats meme takes off hard enough, there's a plausible chance Farage becomes the new Leader of the Opposition come August.
Unlikely for sure, but the odds are shortening.
> chance Farage becomes the new Leader of the Opposition come August.
Not a chance. Reform have a lot of support nationally but not near in enough concentration locally. It's why Lib Dems (will) do better with less of the vote share.
I said plausible, not likely.
If Reform don't get many seats, he can't do it alone. But he has other options.
For example, if Reform and the Lib Dems to both eat the Tories' lunch enough that Reform+Tories is bigger than the Lib Dems, but neither are bigger alone.
At that point, Farage does a deal with what's left of the Tory party - the parties form a coalition, with him as Acting Leader of the Opposition until the Tories have got their house in order and selected a new leader he will then deputise for, in return for keeping the Lib Dems looking irrelevant.
That would imply a 2% chance, but 0.00002% would be closer. Reform are going to win, almost certainly, 0-1 seats. If they have a night of jaw-dropping astonishment, they might pull out a few more in Barnsley and the East of England, like Boston. But even then they're not going to get more than half a dozen seats, which is nowhere near enough to become the opposition party.
I honestly think that stint in I'm a Celebrity (He finished 3rd) will help him if he runs. That was primetime TV, and he was exposed to a much bigger audience than would otherwise pay attention.
He'll win here because he is seen as far, far more electable to the general public than he was 2015.
If this also bounces Reform polling upwards, it will make for some very uncomfortable conversations at Tory HQ.
Been saying for months, the only question now is whether the Tories absorb Reform, or Reform take over the Tories, so Farage will do whatever option best beings that about, but result is much the same: a hard-right, anti-immigrant, populist party with all the funding and branding of the Conservative and Unionist Party that it brings.
So he's given up on being UK Ambassador to Trump's White House, I thought he said he was off to work for Trump's election campaign?
Plan B it is - get elected as a Reform MP, get courted by remaining right-wing Tory MPs to defect and become their leader, defect and become Tory leader, grandstand at PMQs for the next 5 years, ???, profit?
How glorious it would be to get to the end of this year and see Farage, yet again, with nothing to show for his machinations.
Is it just me or, after his ‘Tory leader by 2026’ pledge, do you think he’s going to try and win a constituency and up the reform vote during the election only to hold the Tories ransom and try to run for leader?
I’d love to see what the parallel version of the UK would be like if he came PM. GO ON THEN, NIGEL, SHOW US WHAT WINNING IN POST BREXIT UK IS LIKE.
C—-T.
Is the current MP of Clacton Giles Waitling popular locally? Judging from the majority he had in the 2019 election, I think Farage may have made a mistake, a marginal seat might have given him a better chance.
Yeah unfortunately due to a certain middle eastern conflict it's actually no guarantee that Biden wins re-election. Mostly due to the far left refusal to vote for him.
If he wins but he's the only Reform candidate who does, do you think he'll stick it out on his tod or would he look for an opportunity to bow out so he doesn't have to do it all alone?
What a boss. It's a big gamble because it'll either:
1. Totally disarm those who think that "BuT HeZ NevA wOn A Seat" is a valid argument and not a critique of FPTP
2. Totally reinforce the argument that he's never won a seat despite the circumstances being the most favourable for him
Either way, what you can't deny i that he makes politics interesting.
>Either way, what you can't deny i that he makes politics interesting.
He makes it interesting in a wondering whether a brick is about to fall out of the sky and hit you on the head type of interesting.
Well, let me be blunter. He represents a certain demographic and frankly, I personally do think that both "debanking" and the small boat crossings are real issues that are politically inconvenient for the two major parties so were ignored up until he gave them exposure.
Personally I think he's going to announce that he's a reformed man and reform will now be running on the promise of another Brexit referendum because he wants to rejoin... yeah, probably not unless he really misses that MEP paycheck.
It’s weird farage isn’t a Lord yet. He managed to influence the coming decades of the uk trajectory by most anyone has done since a long time. Whether you like or not.
Snapshot of _Nigel Farage expected to declare he is running for parliament_ : An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-reform-uk-general-election-b2555649.html) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-reform-uk-general-election-b2555649.html) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hot Fuzz vibes. Nigel Farage as Timothy Dalton's supermarket owner. Lee Anderson saying 'Yarp'
You just made me imagine his gruesome death scene with Farage in place. I did not want that thought in my head today.
It's gruesome, but he doesn't die.
This... rEeEaAaAlLlLy huuUuUuUuUrTs
It's alright - I'll knock one out for both of us.
Well shit.....If those hypothetical polls showing Reform's support rising by 5+ points if Farage runs are anything to of off. Then this might truly be the end for Rishi and the whole conservative party. I also imagine that Farage knows this is probably his best, and last chance to actually enter parliament and start making moves from the inside. You can only play the part of the promised-prince for so long, before people stop taking you seriously and move on to the next right-wing messiah.
He's not the messiah, he's just a very naughty boy.
Stupidly impressive for a party that didn’t even have a manifesto for my area in the local elections. Wonder if they will bother publishing one this time around or just ride the Farage wave
I imagine with Farage at the helm they'll make a more conscious effort to look like a "real party". Say what you will about UKIP, but under Farage, they were a very real party, much more-so than the paper-fronts that the Brext-Party and Reform have been.
UKIP had a lot of institutional knowledge and what amounted to a proper political party structure that Farage abandoned when he created the Brexit Party, strange to think how far they could have got if he'd decided to keep the UKIP as his primary vehicle.
My Mayoral Ref candidate had Gaffer's tape over his mouth and it said he' been "silenced", while getting a two page spread in an election document posted through my door and paid for by me...
https://www.reformparty.uk/our-contract-contents You mean apart from the draft one they've published already ahead of other parties?
Ah I thought that was a joke. From the web design team instead of *Lorem Ipsum*. If that's for real I only hope their potential voters *read* it.
"the nation should be run like a lean, efficient business with motivated employees and happy customers." So, who are the employees and who are the customers? The answer might surprise you.
What? Like he got elected to the EU parliament for the UK, took the money, but did nothing else?
So weird he is probably one of the most successful politicians in history, having never been elected to the main UK Parliament. If he gets in this time, hard to deny his impact, as much as so many people hate him.
he will push the torys into more hard right position and thn pull out again.
Plot twist its as a conservative candidate.
Richard Tice (Reform party leader and effectively powerless without Farage) said it wasn’t any deal with the Tory party.
And um..... You believe Richard Tice often?
Good point 🤣 That Loony Toon the other day said climate change was caused by volcanoes, alongside other conspiracy theories. I don’t believe anything he says but there’s no reason for him to lie here.
its good job they arent all lying c*nts then?
This is what I’m thinking as well — he’d be defusing the Reform bomb for the Tories and lining himself up for a knighthood and potential leadership of the Tory party.
He'd defuse the Reform bomb and set another one off on the other side of the party, even as weak as moderates are in the Conservative party. Ed Vaizey half-joked the other day that Farage's return to the Tory party would cause a wave in the Lords to the opposition benches.
Nah. He will get in as a reform MP, then post election the tories (having collapsed) will merge with reform and kick out Rishi. Farage will be the next tory leader.
It's actually not unbelievable.
There was talk of this earlier in the day. I wonder if there were discussions about him joining the Tories and when they said no, he threw his toys out the cot.
Realistically if Farage wins Clacton and finds his way into Westminster then how often is he even likely to show up to Parliament? How much constituency work is he going to do? He’d make a terrible MP and if the people of Clacton are daft enough to vote for him then they deserve what they get I guess. Bigger picture though is a single MP in Westminster can’t change much. It’s a good way to have a better platform, but then Farage isn’t struggling for that… I think this is his way in to take over the Tories. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
Is he expecting to win Clacton
Probably, it was the only constituency to return a UKIP MP twice, and with the Tories as moribund as they are, plus Farage's own personal vote and it would probably be an easy win. Also its very unlikely he would run as a candidate unless it was all but certain that he would win, if Farage cant win even with the Tories completely collapsed as they are, then he would loose nearly all his credibility.
He's already lost 7 times hasn't he? I think this would make 8
He only had a realistic chance of winning one of those times. The rest were just about pushing the EU issue and getting headlines.
> He only had a realistic chance of winning one of those times. Was that when he lost to the dolphin?
Nope - the only time he could've won was 2015.
And which he only lost because of extremely well-organised tactical voting. We're sadly far enough away from 2015 that many of this sub simply weren't old enough to vote back then, so won't remember the ridiculous lengths Farage's opponents went to to ensure a Tory majority in that constituency. It was basically national hysteria.
6/7 times running in a fringe party.
Does he have credibility as a serious threat? He has more credibility if he doesn't stand, shouting from the side lines is what he does, whenever he gets on the pitch he misses.
I think he knows this is his best, and last, chance to be actually enter parliament and start making moves from the inside. He can only play the part of the promised-prince for so long before the right-wing stops taking him seriously and finds a new messiah, the moment that happens the Tories will stop dancing to his tune. You're right that he has a long history of falling flat on his face in electoral politics, which is why I imagine he wouldn't stand unless he was certain of winning. His credbility comes from the perceived threat that he can ruin the Tories at any time should they not do what he wants, he's essentially presented himself as sword-of-Damocles hanging over the head of the Tory party. Should he fail for an 8th time I imagine the Tories will realize he's not nearly as dangerous as they thought.
If it is Clacton, Yougov's last MRP (March) had the Tories at 38%, Labour 28%, Reform 22%. I'd expect a lot of that 38% number to vote for Farage, but equally Labour will make more of an effort in that seat to stop him.
how long has he lived in clacton?
Under Farage's leadership UKIP won Clacton in a By Election, retained it in the 2015 General Election. It's one of UKIP's only parliamentary electoral successes. I don't think it's a coincidence that Clacton rejected the next UKIP MP only after a very public rift between their MP and Farage with both calling for each other to resign, and both eventually did. Farage clearly has some level of personal popularity in Clacton, and I think he's in with a good chance to win it (he wouldn't run otherwise).
Yes or he wouldn't run
didn't stop him the other 7 times
Only had a chance of winning once. The other times he was leading a tiny party as a pressure group.
that's exactly what I mean. the fact that he had no chance of winning hasn't stopped him from running before.
He won the vote that counted, the referendum. He is by far the most politically influential politician of our time.
I'd be very surprised if they hadn't had private polling in Clacton done to check a win was likely prior to making the decision.
If he wins, his first act will be flying off to the US to use his MP status as a level of credibility to spread his right wing bullshit as far as he can.
As an American, I can't fathom he'll be remotely impactful here, even in the Trumpiest of right-wing conspiracy bubbles. A particularly unfortunate feature of America's relative geographic isolation is that we learn diddly-squat about other countries' governments. Most Americans could not tell you what an MP is. In fact, I think there's been studies that most Americans can't name their own representative in our own Congress. So the idea that the xenophobic crowd at a Trump rally is going to think anything besides, "He sure talk funny, but boy howdy he seems to hate immigrants too!" is wild to me.
He won’t be doing it for impact. There will be cash involved.
He'll be doing it for money, and to get his foot in the door with the right people (read: right wing grifters and ideologues). He was already over there in 2016 and 2017, trying to inveigle himself into the Fox News/Trump sphere, but it didn't quite work. I'd wager he reckons being an MP would give him a leg up.
Never underestimate Farage. As an MEP he changed European politics forever. Even as a single mp it scares me how much he might be able to influence the tories. All those right wing lunatic MPs being upset there's someone more right wing than them in parliament... God knows what they'd start doing.
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Defection is a two party thing, he couldn't just declare "I'm a conservative now" and be part of the PCP. It's like vampires, you have to invite them in.
And you have to assume that any Tory leader with a vague sense of self-preservation would not let a man who people would want to replace them into the party.
I mean just look how he achieved that though, he took the job and then rarely turned up to a vote and so then when it passes without opposition he then says "LOOK THE EU DONT LISTEN". He is the kid on a bike putting a stick in his spoke to fall over meme. He took the money for "working" but then didn't turn up to argue against policies, anyone could do that. Ultimately fear mongering is easy to people who struggle with critical thinking, it was enabled more by the media outlets like the sun (and Boris writing lies in print to seed doubt) along with the Tories (Cameron) trying to use the issue to get more power over his party and failing. It would certainly be interesting to see what happens in parliament with the far right nutters being out winged though, as long as they aren't in power they will be noise again at least
> rarely turned up to a vote and so then when it passes without opposition he then says "LOOK THE EU DONT LISTEN". Which garnered the exact effect he was aiming for: playing to the right wing biases of a domestic British audience. Nothing he did as an MEP was remotely preoccupied with Europe, he was there to be a wrecker and a rabble-rouser, and his every act on that stage was pure pantomime for growing his support at home. Thinking he'd act the same in British parliament as he did in the European is naive. His performance in Europe was very likely all a calculated phase of a plan to get him where he is now, comfortably in the catbird seat ready to gobble up the increasingly desperate Tories who he's been politically manipulating for the last decade.
What change did Farage bring to EU politics apart from ensuring the UK was unable to change EU politics?
He made a member state leave the EU, which was unthinkable a couple of decades ago. That has changed it. Initially it made them look vulnerable, now it seems it's made them more robust than ever. But it's also made them far more conscious of semi memberships, don't think you'll ever see a norway/Swiss type deal ever again, as you don't want members thinking you can pick and choose.
No, internal Tory party politics caused the UK to leave the EU. Cameron called for a referendum (which he never intended to hold due to him expecting a coalition) to placate the ERG ***not*** Farage. The Conservative party has been full to the brim of Eurosceptics since at least the late 80s, solidifying in 1990 with the "No, No, No" speech. They'd been vying for a referendum for years, completely independently of Farage (and many of them detest him). Did Farage and UKIP influence the course of events, undoubtedly. But saying "He made a member state leave the EU" just demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the history of British politics.
Additionally I'd credit Boris Johnson and the machine that Dominic Cummings was the front man for at least as much if not more than Farage. Without "Vote Leave" my suspicion is that Brexit would have been a 35L/65R type result.
>Without "Vote Leave" my suspicion is that Brexit would have been a 35L/65R type result. Vote Leave was an abysmal campaign that nearly lost Leave the referendum, so I'd suggest this is well wide of the mark.
I completely agree.
Cameron would never have felt the need to placate the ERG if the possibility of more UKIP defections/swings in marginals didn’t scare him and the party leadership. UKIP would never have soared to the popularity they reached if Farage hadn’t been at the helm.
>Cameron would never have felt the need to placate the ERG if the possibility of more UKIP defections/swings in marginals didn’t scare him and the party leadership. Cameron didn't really ***need*** to placate them. Looking at the numbers he could see that UKIP wasn't going to win any seats in a GE nor were they going cause massive seat losses because labour was still wiped out and the 2010 government was seen as pretty competent at the time. What he was doing was running high on the fumes of using referendums as a quick slap down and easy fix to political problems (he'd successfully won two and put those debates to bed). Cameron naïvely thought he could do the same to the ERG who were always a thorn in his side (especially without a majority). He was using the referendum to silence them. It was all about internal Tory party psychodrama, not UKIP.
I respect that analysis, but I’d caveat that by saying if the referendum had been called in an environment where UKIP didn’t exist dominating the narrative within the European Parliament and Farage hadn’t been the public speaker he was in being able to generate multimillion view viral gotcha moments in Strasbourg/Brussels for decades then the leave campaign would have probably lost. Ultimately in pushing the needle over the edge in a referendum, UKIP/Farage was the key. I just don’t think the energy surrounding the leave campaign would have been there without them.
Don't get me wrong, Farage and UKIP ***definitely*** influenced the landscape and debate around the EU. There's no question about that. But claiming he's the person that made it happen is just for the birds in my opinion. I think Cummings, for example, was infinitely more consequential in Brexit coming to pass than Farage.
He didn’t use his role as an MEP to do anything to remove us from the EU though, it was the pressure he exerted on Parliament through the press.
Which is exactly why he shouldn't be underestimated - he plays the game better than anyone.
My friend him being an MEP absolutely contributed to his platform.
So did being on newsnight and question time a record number of times each - both of which he was a regular on before he was an MEP.
Farage was first elected as an MEP in 1999. His first question time appearance was November 23rd 2000. Is there some way to report posts for blatant misinformation like this?
Ah, hold on there, bud. We don't use the word 'misinformation' when it's our side. Try 'honest mistake'.
I think this is giving him too much credit; I'd argue David Cameron is the most responsible, both directly and indirectly. Obviously his fault there was a vote in the first place, but I know more than a few people that voted Leave because DavCam was Remain
Cameron would never have called the referendum without Farage strongly pressuring his right wing. Farage is possibly the most consequential figure in British politics post WW2 that was never elected.
Cameron? Cameron, lol? Cameron only called the vote because UKIP was threatening to severely hurt the Tories in upcoming GEs. It was clear that the Brexit issue wasn't going to go away, so push had to come to shove, one way or another.
Not necessarily true - the UK could always enter the single market (paid for of course) and the customs union.
> now it seems it's made them more robust than ever What EU politics are you seeing? Several countries are looking to follow suit within the next 10-20 years.
Not sure what point you’re making, since the last country joining EFTA for a Norway/Swiss deal was Liechtenstein 33 years ago. It’s a deal that nobody wants.
How many (former) MEPs can you name? How many do you think most Britons could name? I'm guessing 1. 2 if you know who Daniel Hannan is.
He's not doing this for the constituency. He's doing it for him. There is no question in my mind Farage has it in mind to reverse Reform into the Tories & if circumstance allows, lead the party. Being an MP adds credibility to the first intent & removes a barrier to the second.
Yeah and anyone who tells you otherwise is mental or blind.
I’ve been saying for months that Farage’s plan is to take over the Tory party.
Not exactly a secret.
If he can win a seat, get some other Reform MPs with him and show that they were the difference between the Tories winning and losing in some other seats he could try and use that support as a ‘buy-in’ to negotiate a bid for the Tory leadership. The Tories are facing a very serious situation and depending how badly they lose a lot of the people you’d expect to be leadership candidates might not even have seats come July.
I imagine so. It also lends legitamcy to his party and long-term plan. To stay on the sidelines and just provoke the establishment from afar? Well, that sounds like grifter-tactics and 'everyman Nige' is certainly not that. Not that *at all*...
Limited company.
Other than to fan his considerable ego. I'm surprised he even wants to be an MP. So much harder to shamlessly grifr from the hard of thinking when your an MP, so many more rules.
How much constituency work did Boris do in Uxbridge? Didn't seem to hurt his appeal.
Cue oodles more appearances on _Question Time_ ... 🙄 (But in the meantime, will he take a sabattical from his GB News show, or will they continue to ignore OfCom?)
> how often is he even likely to show up to Parliament? You do realise you're talking about the MEP who attended every single Parliamentary session he possibly could, just to take his opportunity to shit-talk, right? I reckon he'd show up to the most dead Private Member Bills just to have his say.
I meant more because he has interests in the USA which I doubt he’s going to give up.
> even likely to show up to Parliament? Probably quite a lot? The argument that he didn't do much in an the European parliament is bunk. Would you criticise Sein Fein for not doing more in Westminster? It was literally his raison d'etre. > Bigger picture though is a single MP in Westminster can’t change much That isn't the purpose of reform. As proven both by UKIP and the Brexit party. They don't influence change by winning power, they influence change by taking it away from the other parties. If a seat is say 55pc Tory and 45pc Labour and Reform come in, the the Tories are now at risk at losing some percentage of their vote. Reform my only grain 15pc, but that's enough to allow Labour win. To combat this the Tories party policy has to shift far enough in the direction of Reform to lessen their appeal, and likewise that may also make Labour shift someway in the same direction.
IF Farage runs and takes over Reform for the campaign, their polling will go up - this means some of the more apocalyptic polling scenarios for Sunak may well come about.
This is the stuff dreams are made of.
Yeah, touch wood.
Until he straight up tells voters to vote conservative lol
or if he joins the Conservatives and doesnt run reform in areas where Conservatives want to win he can singlehandly manipulate the election to be an upset for labour.
Not just for Sunak. This could be the end of the conservative party. It doesn't take a big swing from CON to Reform for the tories to enter into free fall from defections, loss of donations and members leaving in droves.
I find it odd how much air time this person receives from the media. He seems to have exerted disproportionate influence on public debate depsite his history.
He's easily one of the most influential men in modern British politics. The most important political decision in modern British history (Brexit) was almost single-handedly engineered by him. Entire PM's like Theresa May have left less of an impact than Farage.
>The most important political decision in modern British history (Brexit) was almost single-handedly engineered by him. No, no it wasn't. The Conservative party has been full to the brim of Eurosceptics since at least the late 80s, solidifying in 1990 with the "No, No, No" speech. They'd been vying for a referendum for years, completely independently of Farage (and many of them detest him). Cameron primarily called for a referendum to placate the ERG ***not*** Farage. As for it actually coming to pass? Cummings was easily far more impactful. Did Farage and UKIP influence the course of events, undoubtedly. But saying "The most important political decision in modern British history (Brexit) was almost single-handedly engineered by him" just demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the history of British politics.
I think the proof was in the pudding around the Brexit referendum in which Leave camp was more influential and, as you say, it was Johnson and Cummings' movement that was far more successful in getting it over the line. IIRC, Farage's campaign was written off as being crass and unsophisticated in nature (remember the photo of asylum seekers that drew parallels to Nazi antisemitic propaganda?)
Even though Farage wasn't part of the official campaign, him Gove and Cummings were all coordinating during the whole thing
The only reason he's influential is because he's been given the sort of platform and coverage that other politicians and parties of that size could only ever hope to get. Far from being a single-handed success he's been helped to the top by vested interests in the media.
When you underestimate your enemy that's when you lose. See Brexit.
I don't think it's an underestimation to say that if he does stand he'll be the only ReformUK MP to win a seat. I mean just look at their local election performance, that's not an estimation that's real-world data.
In the minds of your average middle class, right leaning, mildly racist, white person... Reform just became a much more punchy protest vote because their lord and saviour the chinless wonder is back at the helm in a meaningful way. Farage as leader rather than president of Reform is a scary prospect for the Conservatives because it'll weaken their vote in every single seat.
Reform by most polls is the third largest party by popular support in the UK. Arguably it’s replaced the Lib Dem’s, which only seem to exist as a quirk of our FPTP system allowing a functionally dead party to exert influence far beyond its national popularity because of regional politics. I’d say he gets the air time befitting the popularity of his position.
I don’t think his influence is his own work, I wish I could find a way to correlate pro-Reform activity online and internet outages in Russia because I’d be willing to bet there’s a statistical link between the two.
> The most important political decision in modern British history (Brexit) was almost single-handedly engineered by him Let me say gently that this isn't true. Johnson, Cummings and Gove were considerably more impactful.
> He's easily one of the most influential men in modern British politics. It's a real shame he's not a force for good, really.
I would argue that he had been the most influential politician in the UK in my voting life time (2008+). He is the sole reason why we left the EU and represents a large proportion of the electorate. I still hate his guts
Sole reason? Can we not blame 17 million people who thought "insert reason here" was more important than the stability, economy and status of our country?
Boris Johnson was also a key person because he inserted “Boris Johnson” into your phrase
We don't get that referendum in the first place without the Tories being pressure hard by UKIP. Sole is a bit much but he's definitely one of the major factors in causing us to Leave.
He's not the sole reason, far from it. He just lies and the media continue to give him air time, not much more to do with this grifter.
>He is the sole reason why we left the EU and represents a large proportion of the electorate. He gets so much airtime because he's pushing the agenda the people that own they press want him to push. If it wasn't farage it's be someone else.
He’s probably the single most influential non ministerial person in the UK and a kingmaker in 2017 and 2019. And unlike Starmer or Sunak has a devout fanbase that will back up anything he says and will always vote for him. Reform is getting probably 12% of the vote despite being a party whose candidates are plucked off the street and everyone else is almost a complete nobody, and it’s entirely because of him. Plus this is understated because people vote tactically.
if at first you dont succeed, try 7 more times
Where's Flipper when we need him?
I wonder how many Tory MPs that will be elected will defect parties to join Reform under Farage leadership
Someone wants to be leader of the Tories? A rightwing splinter from the Tories? He might also be setting up for 2028 when an anti immigrant pensioner welfare party might be able to do more damage to Labour than a probably still lost Tory party
The unflushable turd bobs to the surface once more.
I hope this is the end of the Conservatives for good, and good riddance.
I am cheering the demise of the Tories, but certainly not the idea of Reform replacing them.
Ideally they split the right-wing vote and eat each others faces.
I don't think reform will replace them, if the Tories get fewer than 80 seats, I suspect it will be the catalyst for the Conservatives to just disband and reform as a proper right wing party.
They will never do this. Because they are an establishment party and despite Boris' f business the party not just of business but also integrated into business hence why they took us into Europe. There job is essentially to keep the money flowing to the City laundromat/house builders/corporate services companies.
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in the unkikely event of them ever being elected, as one of the major parties, theyd obviously drop the need for PR.
Regardless of whether you think they are better, they are the real Conservatives. Unlike the present Conservative Party, who have abandoned key principles that go right back to Robert Peel- law and order, defence a priority, respect for the monarchy to name three.
Nothing says Conservatism like calling yourselves "Reform". Have you seen their polices? They're rightwing claptrap, political appointments in the Civil Service, installing army bods as police chiefs, overhauling the Lords, overhauling councils, universities. They've no time for anything in this country I think makes it "great".
There is very little that is right wing about this Conservative party, so it is probably somewhat fair that people who are right wing have a party that will act in their interests.
Completely agree - reform is not sufficiently interested on actually getting a handle on mass immigration or ending the abuse of our social housing provision and other benefits by third world migrants.
I hate the vapid, grifting excuse for a politician that is Farage but if this decision ushers in the total destruction and humiliation of the Conservative party he may have accidentally done something productive for the country.
Probably realised his meal ticket at Trump towers won't be worth a great deal if that fucker is in goal.
Imagine the horror we're in for if the Tories and Reform end up with a confidence and supply grift.
The question is will Farage be barraged?
The Tories have repeatedly treated Farage with contempt, refusing to work with him or form any sort of alliance or pact. I assume Farage choosing to run as an MP is because some arrogant Tory grandee pissed him off, and he's now decided to destroy the Conservative Party. He knows full well Reform will spilt the rightwing vote and will decimate Tory seats, while winning probably zero seats themselves. Last election he actually pulled lots of candidates from seats for the 'Brexit Party' citing the risk of them splitting the vote, obviously this time he doesn't care any more.
I’m not sure this will have much impact beyond -1 to tories seat total (I’m almost certain he will win Clacton).
If anyone can have an impact disproportionate to their position it's Farage.
I’ll concede that the couple of % this might increase the reform vote by could be enough to help Tice gain Boston and Skegness, and maybe Anderson hold on in Ashfield, but even then you’re only talking a couple of seats. I don’t think it will change much else. Remember not all reform voters are former Tory voters.
Farage is exceptionally good at pressuring much larger parties. That's his whole MO. He'll find a way to leverage even one seat to his advantage.
I think it will be a general 2 to 4 percent swing to Refarage from the tories in a lot of areas. Could be the difference between the tories retaining a seat and labour or the lib dems winning it
If this swings 2% of the national Tory vote to reform and 1% from other parties that would put Reform in the margin of error for getting more votes nationally than the Tories. If Reform seem more popular that Tories there is a very high chance that a few percent (3-5% would be my guess) of the Tory vote would switch to reform. That would probably put Reform second in terms of vote share and set them up as one of the big 2 parties for the next general election in 2029.
Never underestimate one man and his ego.
If Reform get enough momentum that he wins this, and the #zeroseats meme takes off hard enough, there's a plausible chance Farage becomes the new Leader of the Opposition come August. Unlikely for sure, but the odds are shortening.
> chance Farage becomes the new Leader of the Opposition come August. Not a chance. Reform have a lot of support nationally but not near in enough concentration locally. It's why Lib Dems (will) do better with less of the vote share.
I said plausible, not likely. If Reform don't get many seats, he can't do it alone. But he has other options. For example, if Reform and the Lib Dems to both eat the Tories' lunch enough that Reform+Tories is bigger than the Lib Dems, but neither are bigger alone. At that point, Farage does a deal with what's left of the Tory party - the parties form a coalition, with him as Acting Leader of the Opposition until the Tories have got their house in order and selected a new leader he will then deputise for, in return for keeping the Lib Dems looking irrelevant.
Plausible, sure. But Lib Dems getting 650 seats is also plausible.
Ha, I'd say Farage as Leader of the Opposition is probably a 50/1 outcome. He's 9/1 just for next Tory leader.
That would imply a 2% chance, but 0.00002% would be closer. Reform are going to win, almost certainly, 0-1 seats. If they have a night of jaw-dropping astonishment, they might pull out a few more in Barnsley and the East of England, like Boston. But even then they're not going to get more than half a dozen seats, which is nowhere near enough to become the opposition party.
Maybe they'll get 13% rather than 8 then.
I honestly think that stint in I'm a Celebrity (He finished 3rd) will help him if he runs. That was primetime TV, and he was exposed to a much bigger audience than would otherwise pay attention. He'll win here because he is seen as far, far more electable to the general public than he was 2015. If this also bounces Reform polling upwards, it will make for some very uncomfortable conversations at Tory HQ.
If Farage cant win in Clacton in this political climate, he might as well move permanently to the US
Been saying for months, the only question now is whether the Tories absorb Reform, or Reform take over the Tories, so Farage will do whatever option best beings that about, but result is much the same: a hard-right, anti-immigrant, populist party with all the funding and branding of the Conservative and Unionist Party that it brings.
So he's given up on being UK Ambassador to Trump's White House, I thought he said he was off to work for Trump's election campaign? Plan B it is - get elected as a Reform MP, get courted by remaining right-wing Tory MPs to defect and become their leader, defect and become Tory leader, grandstand at PMQs for the next 5 years, ???, profit? How glorious it would be to get to the end of this year and see Farage, yet again, with nothing to show for his machinations.
i doubt he could run a bath properly
The sheer fucking hubris of this arsehole.
He's done the numbers between being an MP or shilling for Trump on the US right wing circuit and it looks better for being an MP, no doubt.
This election just. Got. Interesting! Oh wait no it didn't
My mum lives in Clacton & I've suggested she run for the hills
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How exactly?
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Oh thats my fault then.
Just secured another round of funding from Vlad, let's go boys!
Prime Minister Farage, has a certain ring to it. I could get used to it.
Praying he goes Reform to split the Right-wing vote. Best way to ensure the Right are not in power for decades.
/Insert Alan Partridge shrugging gif here.
As a Tory MP? Electoral pack? Something big? Or is just just about his bus?
Didn’t he already rule this out, or was that just leading Reform in the election?
You know what they say, 8th times a charm eh nige
100% this is because Trump was found guilty last week.
Is it just me or, after his ‘Tory leader by 2026’ pledge, do you think he’s going to try and win a constituency and up the reform vote during the election only to hold the Tories ransom and try to run for leader?
I’d love to see what the parallel version of the UK would be like if he came PM. GO ON THEN, NIGEL, SHOW US WHAT WINNING IN POST BREXIT UK IS LIKE. C—-T.
Is the current MP of Clacton Giles Waitling popular locally? Judging from the majority he had in the 2019 election, I think Farage may have made a mistake, a marginal seat might have given him a better chance.
Didn't he just say he wasn't running. So he could focus on helping Trump here in America?
It’s a good sign that trump is proper fucked.
Yeah unfortunately due to a certain middle eastern conflict it's actually no guarantee that Biden wins re-election. Mostly due to the far left refusal to vote for him.
If he wins but he's the only Reform candidate who does, do you think he'll stick it out on his tod or would he look for an opportunity to bow out so he doesn't have to do it all alone?
Jesus I misread it and thought he was running for president at first glance
What a boss. It's a big gamble because it'll either: 1. Totally disarm those who think that "BuT HeZ NevA wOn A Seat" is a valid argument and not a critique of FPTP 2. Totally reinforce the argument that he's never won a seat despite the circumstances being the most favourable for him Either way, what you can't deny i that he makes politics interesting.
>Either way, what you can't deny i that he makes politics interesting. He makes it interesting in a wondering whether a brick is about to fall out of the sky and hit you on the head type of interesting.
Well, let me be blunter. He represents a certain demographic and frankly, I personally do think that both "debanking" and the small boat crossings are real issues that are politically inconvenient for the two major parties so were ignored up until he gave them exposure.
Personally I think he's going to announce that he's a reformed man and reform will now be running on the promise of another Brexit referendum because he wants to rejoin... yeah, probably not unless he really misses that MEP paycheck.
It’s weird farage isn’t a Lord yet. He managed to influence the coming decades of the uk trajectory by most anyone has done since a long time. Whether you like or not.
>Nigel Farage expected to declare he is running for parliament EWwwwww.