Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, has finally been elected an MP after eight attempts.
The Eurosceptic politician has defeated his Conservative challenger in the Essex seat of Clacton, securing a place in the UK House of Commons for the first time in his career. He has immediately vowed to launch a strong opposition against Labour.
Farage described his victory as “the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,” pledging to transform Reform UK into the main opposition despite projections that his party will only 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 stated, declaring “this is the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party.”
UK Tories have experienced their most significant election defeat in history, securing only 131 seats according to exit polls. Before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dissolved Parliament and called a general election, the ruling party held a majority of 344 seats.
Farage declared that his party would “now be targeting Labour votes,” as polls suggest their landslide victory was driven by resentment towards the Tories rather than confidence in party leader 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 remarked. “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 he had never been elected to the British Parliament before.
Prior to the election, Farage was accused of being a Moscow sympathizer after he blamed NATO expansion in Europe for the Ukraine conflict. During a BBC interview last month, he claimed that the US-led military bloc provided the Russian government with an excuse to rally domestic support for the operation.
Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin said he expected accusations of election interference despite believing that no outcome could significantly alter Britain’s policy towards Russia.