Nigel Farage has been elected to parliament, marking the emergence of his populist Reform UK as a new force in British politics squeezing the Conservative vote from the right wing.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Farage, a driving force behind Britain's decision to leave the European Union, only entered the race in June, a move that caused shock waves in a Conservative Party that was already polling far behind centre-left Labour.
He was elected in Clacton, an Essex town that had one of highest leave votes in the Brexit referendum in 2016, with a 46 per cent share of the vote, beating the Conservatives - among a handful of Reform candidates elected for the first time.
"There is a massive gap on the centre right of British politics and my job is to fill it, and that's exactly what I'm going to do," he said after being declared the winner.
"Believe me folks, this is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you."
Farage, a former member of the European Parliament, had failed in seven previous bids to be elected to Westminster.
With all but two results declared, Reform had also chalked up victories in Ashfield in the East Midlands, where the Conservatives were pushed into fourth, Great Yarmouth in East Anglia, where the Conservatives were relegated to third and Boston and Skegness, where the Conservatives were second.
An exit poll had forecast the party could win 13 seats.
While it secured only four MPs, Reform picked up more than four million votes around the country.
Reform, founded as the Brexit Party in 2018 and renamed in 2022, had not previously won any seat in an election.
Early results in seats won comfortably by Labour showed Reform performing strongly, pushing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives into third place in a significant number.
Farage's party aims to shake up British politics as Marine Le Pen's National Rally is doing in France by taking a tough line on immigration, demanding that illegal migrants arriving in small boats from France are sent back.
That would be difficult to achieve, but by focusing on the issue, it has targeted a weak spot for the Conservatives, which have failed to "stop the boats" as promised by Sunak.
The Conservative plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda also failed to get off the ground before the election was called.
Australian Associated Press
