The Reform UK leader has been elected as a member of parliament on his eighth attempt.
Eurosceptic firebrand Nigel Farage won a seat in the UK parliament for the first time in Thursday’s general election, defeating his Conservative challenger in the Essex constituency of Clacton, and promising to mount a strong opposition to Labour.
Farage called his victory “the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,” pledging to turn his Reform UK party into the main opposition. The party, created in 2018, is projected to win 13 out of 650 seats.
“There is a massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it,” he said, claiming: “this is the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party.”
The Tories have suffered their worst-ever election defeat, securing only 131 seats, according to exit polls and early results. Before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dissolved parliament and called a general election, the ruling party held 344 constituencies.
Farage proclaimed that his party would “now be targeting Labour votes,” and cited polls suggesting the centre-left landslide was motivated by resentment against the Conservatives, rather than confidence in the incoming prime minister, Keir Starmer.
“What is interesting is, there’s no enthusiasm for Labour, there’s no enthusiasm for Starmer whatsoever. In fact, about half of the vote is simply an anti-Conservative vote,” he said. “We’re coming for Labour, be in no doubt about that.”
Farage served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 until the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in 2020, but had never previously been elected to the British parliament.
Starmer is like cold soup. There is going to be some spectacle during PM question😅😅😂
13 seats out of 650?!
Forgive my pessimism, but really?
Labour will quadruple -no- quintuple down on mass immigration and Agenda 2030. And all those new voters who come in will vote left forever, same political scheme as in the US. They’ll basically win every election from here on out. Forever.
Farage is great and all, but what’s he gonna do with his 13 seats? What kind of a country will they even have left five years from now?
The Bank of England is already bankrupt.
So don t count on any change. It is probably going from bad to worse.
Farage will do the same he has been doing in european parliament before brexit. Confront and critcise .
13 Seats give you a voice right? We have all seen how both sides of the house leave when MP Andrew Bridgen makes a speech.