Reform UK has seen a surge in votes in the general election, at the cost of the Conservatives, and Nigel Farage is one of four new MPs.
Reform UK has won four seats in Parliament on a night which the party’s leader Nigel Farage described as the “beginning of the end” for the Conservatives.
Mr. Farage was elected in the Essex seat of Clacton, where he ousted the sitting Conservative MP Giles Watling.
Lee Anderson, who defected to Reform from the Conservatives, retained his seat in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.
Reform’s party Chairman Richard Tice won Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire, beating the Conservatives’ Matt Warman, who had been MP (Member of Parliament) since 2015.
The fourth Reform MP will be businessman and former chairman of Southampton football club, Rupert Lowe, who won Great Yarmouth, another gain from the Tories.
All four victories were in areas which voted heavily in favour of leaving the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
But Mr. Farage, who led both UKIP and the Brexit Party, said his party had moved on from the EU issue and was now challenging the Tories for votes on a string of other issues.
‘Massive Gap on the Centre-Right of British Politics’
In a speech, following the election count in Clacton, Mr. Farage said, “It’s not just disappointment with the Conservative party, there is a massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it.”
Speaking to journalists afterwards, Mr. Farage insisted Reform was a, “non-racist, non-sectarian” party, after three of the party’s candidates were dropped and disowned for allegedly offensive comments on social media.
He also predicted the result was the, “beginning of the end” for the Conservative Party.
Mr. Farage said, “This is just the first step, I set out with a goal to win millions of votes, to get a bridgehead in Parliament and that’s what we’ve done so I’m very pleased.”
The 60-year-old former MEP said Reform would move forward “very rapidly.”
“I’ve got to professionalise it, I’ve got to democratise it, I’ve got to get rid of a few idiots that found it too easy to get on board. They will all go, they will all go, this will be a non-racist, non-sectarian party. Absolutely and I give my word on that,” he added.
