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Nigel Farage during a press conference to announce that he will become the new leader of Reform UK and that he will stand as the parliamentary candidate for Clacton, Essex, at The Glaziers Hall in London, while on the General Election campaign trail, June 3, 2024
NIGEL FARAGE declared he will stand for election after all, the Reform party owner said today in a U-turn that will come as a bitter blow to the Tories.
Mr Farage announced he will contest Clacton in the forthcoming poll and set an aim of winning more votes than the Conservatives as well as improving on the four million that predecessor party Ukip gained in 2015.
He also pledged to challenge Labour for votes in “red wall” constituencies and to drive down the party’s share of the vote, while claiming that “[party leader Sir Keir] Starmer has already won this election.”
Every Starmer boast about removing asylum-seekers probably wins Reform another seat while Labour loses more voters to Lib Dems, Greens and nationalists than to the far right — the disaster facing Labour is the leadership’s fault, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
While Spode quit politics after inheriting an earldom, Farage combines MP duties with selling columns, gin, and even video messages — proving reality produces more shameless characters than PG Wodehouse imagined, writes STEPHEN ARNELL