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Nigel Farage has at last been elected as an MP, winning the seat of Clacton in Essex on what was a hugely successful night for his Reform UK party.
Mr Farage received 21,225 votes – comfortably beating the Conservatives’ Giles Watling with a majority of 8,405 – as he finally won a parliamentary seat after seven unsuccessful attempts.
The right-wing party saw a surge in support across the country, with chairman Richard Tice and businessman Rupert Lowe also winning seats, in Boston and Skegness and Great Yarmouth respectively. Earlier Lee Anderson also retained his Ashfield seat, becoming the party’s first ever elected MP.
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In his victory speech, Mr Farage declared his party is “coming for Labour”, telling his audience in Clacton he wanted to fill a “massive gap on the centre-right of British politics”.
“There’s no enthusiasm for Labour, there’s no enthusiasm for Starmer whatsoever,” he said. “In fact, about half of the vote is simply an anti-Conservative vote.
“This Labour government will be in trouble very, very quickly and we will now be targeting Labour votes. We’re coming for Labour, be in no doubt about that.
“Believe me folks, this is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you.”
Mr Farage added that he would do his “absolute best” as an MP as he hailed the efforts of his party, which was forecast to take around a dozen parliamentary seats.
“It’s four weeks and three days since I decided to come out of retirement and throw my hat in the ring,” he said. “I think what Reform UK has achieved in just those few short weeks is truly extraordinary.
“Given we had no money, no branch structure, virtually nothing across the country, we’re going to come second in hundreds of constituencies, how many seats we’re going to win – I don’t know.
“But to have done this in such a short space of time says something very fundamental is happening.”
Speaking after his victory in Ashfield, Mr Anderson told reporters he was “delighted but not surprised” about his win.
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“This is the capital of common sense, by the way – people speak their mind in this area and they’ve had enough of the two mainstream parties.
“The Reform Party, people like myself, Richard [Tice] and Nigel speak the same language, in a different accent obviously, we speak the same language as the great people of Ashfield.
“So when this gig came up and I was asked to stand again for the Reform Party, it was a no-brainer to be honest with you.”
Mr Farage initially announced he would not run in the general election, before changing his mind because he couldn’t “let down millions of people”.
Clacton is the only constituency to have elected a Ukip (or Brexit Party) candidate at a general election – the Conservative defector Douglas Carswell in 2015.
It also had the fifth highest Leave vote in the UK (71 per cent) at the Brexit referendum in 2016.
His win comes following a controversial Reform campaign marred by allegations of racism, misogyny and homophobia.
A string of scandals hit Reform over the last few weeks, including a party activist calling prime minister Rishi Sunak a “f****** P***”. Another party activist was caught describing the Pride flag as “degenerate” and LGBT+ people as “nonces”.
These incidents followed a candidate stepping away from the party for historic comments praising Hitler and Mr Farage himself being accused of “appeasing Vladimir Putin” by blaming the West for the invasion of Ukraine.
Before the general election, the Reform UK leader said his long-term goal was to run for prime minister in 2029. He said: “That is our ambition. And we believe it is achievable.”
Full result for Clacton
Nigel Farage, Reform – 21,225 (46.18%)
Giles Watling, Conservative – 12,820 (27.90%)
Jovan Owusu-Nepaul (Lab) – 7,448 (16.21%)
Matthew Bensilum (LD) – 2,016 (4.39%)
Natasha Osben (Green) – 1,935 (4.21%)
Tony Mack (Ind) 317 – (0.69%)
Andrew Pemberton (UKIP) – 116 (0.25%)
Craig Jamieson (Climate) – 48 (0.10%)
Tasos Papanastasiou (Heritage) – 33 (0.07%)
Reform majority – 8,405 (18.29%)
