Nigel Farage will not run to become an MP again as he wants to avoid the humiliation of another defeat.
The former Ukip leader has been threatening to make a political comeback as immigration and Brexit return to the headlines.
But the Mirror can reveal he will not stand for Parliament for an eighth time over fears of losing yet again.
Mr Farage last night said he had not ruled out returning to take the helm of the Reform Party.
But he suggested he would campaign nationally rather than run for a particular seat if there was an election.
His last bid to become an MP ended in failure in 2015 when he lost by 2,812 votes in South Thanet.
The Tories were later found to have broken spending rules as they pulled out all the stops to beat him.
Mr Farage told the Mirror: “The truth of it is anywhere I stood they would cheat. They would break the law, they just would.
“No one went to prison last time, the result stood, one person got a suspended sentence.”
After leaving Ukip, Mr Farage made a return to politics in 2019 as Theresa May struggled to pass her Brexit deal.
He led the Brexit Party to victory in the European elections when it got 29 MEPs elected, before it was later rebranded as Reform UK.
Mr Farage, who now hosts a nightly television show on GB News, last night said he was “open minded” about returning to politics, but insisted “it is not top of my bucket list’.
“I am quite happy with life as it is,” he added. “I don’t dream at night of doing it, but if they (the Tories) go on messing up the way they are, I just might at some point feel compelled to.”
The 58-year-old has unsuccessfully stood for Parliament seven times over 21 years, starting with the Eastleigh by-election in 1994.
In January 2019, Tory official Marion Little was given a nine-month suspended sentence and fined £5,000 after being found guilty of falsifying election expenses.
The party had declared that spending on the campaign in South Thanet came in under the strict £52,000 limit, but prosecutors alleged up to £66,600 more was spent on staffing, accommodation, advertising, posters and a bus.
The judge said Ms Little had become “carried away by her conviction” that the Tories must defeat Mr Farage.
List of Nigel Farage’s seven election defeats
- 1994 by-election - Eastleigh
- 1997 general election - Salisbury
- 2001 general election - Bexhill and Battle
- 2005 general election - South Thanet
- 2006 by-election - Bromley and Chislehurst
- 2010 general election - Buckingham
- 2015 general election - South Thanet
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