CLACTON-ON-SEA, England — If at first you don’t succeed, try, try (try, try, try, try, try, try) again.
Brexit champion Nigel Farage on Friday morning finally became a U.K. MP at the eighth attempt and his insurgent right-wing Reform Party is on the rise.
Speaking in his freshly won constituency of Clacton-on-Sea in the early hours, Farage told a room of cheering supporters, “There is a massive gap on the center-right of British politics. It is my job is to fill it.”
He went on, “My plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years, and hopefully it’ll be big enough to challenge the general election properly in 2029.”
The Donald Trump ally and career Euroskeptic has become a worldwide political name without ever managing to win a seat in Britain’s parliament. That all changed during the U.K.’s snap election, as his populist Reform party scored unexpectedly well, helping push the Conservatives out of government.
Farage is riding the wave of right-wing populist support which is growing across Europe and beyond, a narrative that — on the surface — runs counter to the Labour Party’s massive landslide victory in the U.K. general election.
His appeal to voters concerned about immigration and supportive of Brexit appeared to chime with the electorate in large parts of the U.K.
And it is not just Farage’s politics that will make him stand out in Westminster. The Reform leader is a populist with a charismatic personality — in contrast to both outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Leader Keir Starmer, the incoming Downing Street inhabitant.
Farage’s election will send shockwaves through a political scene where he is largely seen as a pariah by the MPs of other parties.
Farage underestimated
Reform is the latest iteration of Farage’s now-defunct Brexit Party, which failed to win any seats in the 2019 General Election, a story which couldn’t be more different today.
The party was initially projected to win 13 seats, far more than recent opinion polls anticipated. Halfway through the night this forecast was dialed back to four, but the widespread show of support was heartily welcomed by Farage.
It’s not just the polls that underestimated Farage’s win, but the major political parties, too. Farage took over the party only on June 4, two weeks after Sunak called the general election.
But now, Reform has 15 percent of the vote share and has unseated at least three Conservative MPs.
“To have done this in such a short space of time says something very fundamental is happening,” Farage said in his acceptance speech.
Right-wing populist support has swung to the insurgent party away from the Conservatives, adding salt to the wound of its massive loss to Labour.
But it’s also come from people attracted by Farage’s anti-establishment rhetoric. Launching his bid for MP, he described his run as a “revolt,” saying his emergence represented, “a turning of our backs on the political status quo. It doesn’t work. Nothing in this country works any more.”
Reform UK were hit by controversies
Reform had released a “contract with the people” rather than a traditional manifesto, saying it was “not something with which we’re going to govern the country.”
Its headline promises focused on immigration, with Farage dubbing the vote the “immigration election.” The contract includes a four-point plan for stopping small boats crossing the English Channel — the first of which is to leave the European Convention on Human Rights — and a “freeze” on nonessential immigration.
Other pledges include the abolition of the Northern Ireland Brexit deal, the scrapping of net-zero plans, tax cuts and a Covid-19 excess deaths inquiry.
Reform’s rapid ascension has not been without hiccups during the six-week election campaign.
Six Reform candidates were suspended for online comments — or, in one case, for former membership of the extreme-right British National Party — since nominations closed in June, as the party accused a vetting company of failing to run any background checks on its representatives.
One was said to have praised Adolf Hitler as “brilliant,” said the Nazi leader was “able to inspire people to action” and called Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “legitimate.” Another said Britain “should have accepted Hitler’s offer of neutrality” in the run-up to World War II.
The vetting company said it did not have time to scrutinize all the candidates before the election.
Farage for prime minister?
The party came second in more than 100 seats, suggesting it could become even more of a force at future elections. These included Labour’s Barnsley North and Hartlepool.
Reforms’s sights are not just set on Clacton, or second place, however.
The party’s Deputy Leader David Bull told Sky News that by “2029, you’ll see Nigel as prime minister.”
Farage has not shot down the notion. He said: “Whatever happens happens, probably [by] 2029, this movement will have found someone younger and better looking than me,” he told a press huddle after his win.
The question now lies with the Conservative right. Will they woo Farage into supporting them, or will Reform be able to persuade the remaining MPs to change their shade of blue?
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