Nigel Farage yesterday unveiled a six-year masterplan for restructuring politics, declaring “we are now a genuine opposition party” – and warning he was prepared to take on the Conservatives in an antagonistic manner if he wins a seat in the House of Commons on July 4.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday UAE Breaking News the Reform UK leader said: “It’s the start of a serious attempt to create a coherent political party that really believes in this country – to set up a group of people at Westminster who unite on key policy issues.”
Mr Farage made the comments after a recent opinion poll showed his party within two percentage points of the Conservatives. Last night Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s cabinet stepped up efforts to thwart Mr Farage’s breakthrough by warning that a yes-reform vote would result in a Labour victory.
But over a gin and tonic in a Westminster pub, Mr Farage hit back: “This election is over. Labour will win by a landslide. The only question now for voters is who will be in opposition.
“If Keir becomes a starter at No 10 Downing Street, who should lead the opposition – Rishi, Sunak, Ed Davey or me?”
“The Conservatives will be in opposition, but they can’t be in opposition because they spend their whole life arguing with each other.”
He warned that if the Reform Party did not win “millions of votes” and “a parliamentary bridgehead”, there was a risk that Labour would “take complete control out of control”.
Mr Farage was speaking just five days after surprising Westminster by announcing he would return as leader of the Reform Party and stand for the seat of Clacton, a coastal town in Essex.
Yesterday he revealed that his decision was driven by a crisis-ridden and divided Conservative Party that had “betrayed” Britain and Brexit.
He launched a fierce attack on Rishi Sunak and his “enlightened” party and warned of a revolution on the right-wing fringes of British politics. Mr Farage, 60, also said the door was open to any surviving Conservative MPs who wanted to join the Reform Party after the election.
“This is the start of a six-year plan,” he added. “We’re saying the country is broken.
“Nothing is working, we’re up to our necks in debt and public services are dysfunctional in ways I’ve never seen in my life.
“We need to think differently about how we do everything.”
He claimed that at least 50 of the Conservative MPs elected in 2019 shared his political instincts.
The Prime Minister has come under fire for missing D-Day celebrations and Mr Farage has warned that the Conservatives could suffer a major election defeat.
“One more blunder and they could lose all their seats,” he warned.
According to a WeThink survey, Reform UK is now the third most popular party in British politics. But he believes there’s more to it than just beating the Conservatives.
He added: “Most of those people saying they are going to vote Labour are saying it because they don’t want to vote Conservative. I think we’ll dig into the Labour vote much more than they think.”
In a direct message to former Labour voters in Red Wall strongholds who voted Tory for the first time in 2019, he said: “You were betrayed by the Tories who pretended to take my agenda. Now you can vote for it.”
He said there was no discussion of a repeat of the deal from the last election, in which the Brexit Party was left behind in Conservative-held seats, despite the Conservatives’ dismal poll results.
A still-angry Farage said his party had “done the biggest favour we’ve ever done and we didn’t even get a word of thanks”. The Conservatives then “completely opposed our ideas on Brexit”, he said. He blamed the Conservatives for their deep-seated elitism, saying: “The Conservatives are still a very, very snobby party. Most of their antipathy towards me is pure snobism.”
He argues that Labour and the Conservatives are “equally guilty of lowering ordinary people’s standards of living”.
“Britain needs to be shaken up and governed in a different way, by different priorities and different people,” he said. The terrorism will split the Conservative Party as Reform Britain overtakes it before polling day.
The Wesink poll found that almost a quarter (24%) would vote for Farage if he stood in their constituency. Six in 10 said they would not, while 16% were undecided.
And he rejected any suggestions he might “go back home” to Westminster if he won the Greens’ coveted seat, saying: “Two decades in Brussels has made me a local?” Have I changed at all? Certainly not.”
Mr Farage also played down the possibility of former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson joining the new movement he wants to build.
“Once you’re at the top it’s very hard to come back,” he said, adding that Johnson has “star appeal” but is “politically weak”.
Mr Farage took part in a BBC election debate last week along with six other politicians. The show has an average audience of 3.2 million, with 2.5 million tuning in to the corresponding debate in 2019.
The leader, who had launched a new career as a broadcaster before returning to politics, said: “I’m giving up a very comfortable life to do this but I think it has to be done.”