Eurosceptic firebrand Nigel Farage won a seat in the UK parliament for the first time in Thursday's general election, defeating his Conservative challenger in the Essex constituency of Clacton, and 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,” pledging to turn his Reform UK party into the main opposition. The former Brexit Party, created in 2018, is projected to win 13 out of 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.”
The Tories have suffered their worst-ever election defeat, securing only 131 seats, according to exit polls and early results. Before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dissolved parliament and called a general election, the ruling party held 344 constituencies.
Farage proclaimed that his party would “now be targeting Labour votes,” and cited polls suggesting the centre-left landslide was motivated by resentment against the Conservatives, rather than confidence in the incoming prime minister, Keir Starmer.
@ISIDEWITH3 days3D
Considering Farage's intent to 'come for Labour', how do you feel about political strategies that focus on attacking other parties versus promoting their own agendas?
@9QQJ9NK3 days3D
Represents how weak their manifesto is and how they piggyback off populism.
@ISIDEWITH3 days3D
How do you think the emergence of a strong third party like Nigel Farage's might change the traditional two-party dynamics in politics?
@9QQJ2DP3 days3D
I don’t really think Reform is a big enough party to “come for labour”
