The Reform UK leader has finally been elected an MP on his eighth attempt
The Eurosceptic firebrand who leads the Reform UK party has beat his Conservative challenger for the Essex seat of Clacton, securing a spot in the UK House of Commons for the first time in his political career – and immediately promising to mount a strong opposition to Labour.
Farage called his victory “the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,” promising to turn the Reform UK into the main opposition even as his party is projected to secure only 13 out of the 650 seats.
“There is a massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it,” he said, claiming “this is the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party.”
UK Tories have suffered their worst election defeat in history, securing only 131 seats, according to exit polls. Before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dissolved the Parliament and called a general election, the ruling party had a majority of 344 seats.
Farage proclaimed that his party would “now be targeting Labour votes,” as the polls suggested their landslide was motivated by resentment for the Tories, rather than by confidence in the 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 said. “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.
Ahead of 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 gave the Russian government an excuse to rally domestic support for the operation.
Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin said he expected accusations of election interference even though he believes that no outcome could meaningfully change Britain’s policy towards Russia.
