Richard Tice is stepping aside as leader of Reform UK to allow Nigel Farage to take the reins.
The former UKIP and Brexit Party leader, who is largely credited with pushing ‘Leave’ over the finish line in the 2016 Brexit referendum, said “there is a rejection of the political class going on in this country in a way that has not been seen in modern times,” and that he is coming back to lead a political “revolt.”
Farage will now stand to be elected as MP for Clacton, the Essex seaside town where his former party, UKIP, won its first Parliamentary seat in 2014—despite saying just 11 days ago that now “is not the right time” to throw his hat in the ring.
Why the change of mind?
Farage had made it clear that he had a six month plan for campaigning for and winning a seat, but that the six week’s notice given by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s snap election announcement made a victory appear “virtually impossible.”
But the response from many Farage supporters to his decision not to stand was that of disappointment. Talking in London on Monday, June 3rd, Farage himself said:
I simply couldn’t help feeling that, somehow, they felt I was letting them down—that I wasn’t standing up for these people. People who, in their millions, stood with me in some cases for many many years. …
I have been a champion for many of those people. … I began to feel a terrible sense of guilt.
In the end, he concluded that “difficult though it is, I can’t let down those millions of people. I simply can’t do it. It would be wrong.”
So what’s the plan?
Now he’s announced he is “coming back” to frontline politics, Farage has made it clear that this is no short-term move.
I’m coming back as leader of Reform UK—but not just for this election campaign. I’m coming back for the next five years.
And there is one very simple reason for that. We all know already that the Conservative Party will be in opposition [after the July 4th election, which he—like many pollsters—is convinced Labour will win]. But they won’t be the opposition. They are incapable of it. …. They have spent most of the last five years fighting each other rather than standing up and fighting for the interests of this country. … Frankly, right now, they don’t stand for a damn thing.
As he has through much of his career, Farage will focus heavily on the migration issue which is so present in the minds of millions of voters but is ignored as much as is possible by the establishment parties. Farage described the July 4th vote as “the immigration election,” and will undoubtedly continue to hammer on with this topic over the years which follow it.
What is Reform hoping to achieve?
Farage is widely credited with first securing and then winning the 2016 Brexit referendum, after which he led the Brexit Party—since renamed as Reform UK—to beat every other British political party in the 2019 European elections. Before this, in 2015, he led UKIP to winning almost four million votes at the UK general election, although the First Past the Post electoral system meant his party only secured one Parliamentary seat.
Farage now aims to get “many many more votes” than UKIP did in 2015, both from the Conservatives and Labour—and, perhaps more importantly, from the millions who do not vote because they believe that neither party represents them.
He did raise a question over what this will mean in terms of won seats, given the electoral system described above, while expressing his hope that “we might just surprise everybody.” But at the end of the day, Farage said he already knows Labour leader Keir Starmer will win, “but we are absolutely going to make sure his percentage is a lot smaller than it is now.”
And what about after the election?
Farage made it clear that the July 4th election is merely an aperitif; that the real work will start after the national poll.
What I’m really calling for, and what I intend to lead, is a political revolt. … A turning of our backs on the political status quo.
It doesn’t work. Nothing in this country works any more. The health service doesn’t work. The roads don’t work. None of our public services are up to scratch. We are in decline. This will only be turned around with boldness.
Make no mistake: we are unashamedly patriotic; we believe that it is right to put the interests of British people first; we believe Brexit needs to be implemented properly and we are going to be the voice of opposition.
Farage is clearly not overly concerned by the prospect of a Labour victory, despite criticism from some small-c conservative commentators that the damage this will deal is being radically underestimated. Or perhaps he thinks this doesn’t matter since, in his own words, “the election is [already] over” and Starmer has already won. Either way, Farage said that “whoever wins” out of the Tories and Labour, mass immigration will continue, along with tax raises, while people get poorer and crime gets worse. All of which could help to attract voters to Reform’s promise of a political “revolt.”
In a final rallying call, Farage declared that “I’ve done it before. I’ll do it again. I’ll surprise everybody.”
There will be much focus in the coming days on Reform’s position in the polls, which is heavily expected to go up. Also on the reaction from the Conservatives and Labour, who know (though they rarely admit it) just how impactful Farage has been in the past, and likely will be again.
Farage will launch his Clacton candidacy campaign tomorrow, on June 4th, at midday.
The last time Farage stood to become MP, for the Kent seat of South Thanet in 2015, he lost. A Conservative Party official was later found guilty of, and handed a nine-month suspended sentence and £5,000 fine for falsifying election expenses after becoming “carried away by her conviction” that the party must defeat him.
Tice, meanwhile, will take up a new position as Reform’s chairman. Farage said he is “happy” to do so, and praised him for leading the party over the past three years.
