Nigel Farage has announced that he will stand in the general election as Reform UK’s candidate and become the party’s leader.
He had previously said he would not stand in July’s general election, but will run as the Reform Party candidate in Clacton.
The former UKIP and Brexit Party leader said he had changed his mind after spending time campaigning, adding that he did not want to disappoint his supporters.
In Essex, which first elected a UKIP MP in 2014, the Conservatives have a majority of 24,702 votes.
Mr Farage said he wanted to lead a “political rebellion”, adding: “Yes, a rebellion – a turn against the political status quo. It doesn’t work. Nothing is working in this country anymore.”
He predicted that the Conservative Party would be in opposition after the general election.
“They’re split down the middle on policy and, frankly, they’re not making any case right now,” he said.
“So our aim in this election is to win millions of votes – far more than UKIP won in 2015.”
In a further blow to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, two opinion polls showed the Conservative Party was heading for a major defeat.
A YouGov poll conducted by Sky News among around 60,000 people between May 24 and June 1 predicted that Labour would win its biggest election victory in history, with 422 seats, dropping the Conservatives to just 140 seats.
Meanwhile, a More in Common poll of 15,000 people conducted between 9 April and 29 May predicted that Labour would win 382 seats and the Conservatives 180.
Both were MRP polls predicting results in each constituency and were conducted before Farage announced his candidacy.
Farage has made it clear he intends to make immigration a central issue in his campaign.
“Our country cannot survive with the current population explosion,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said the UK should drastically cut back on unskilled immigration, saying: “We don’t need unskilled immigration. We literally don’t need it.”
He also appeared to abandon a reformist policy of transferring asylum seekers to British overseas territories. He said the idea was “not very practical”, adding: “I took over yesterday. Give me more than 12 hours and we can sort some things out.”
Farage has run unsuccessfully for parliament seven times, most recently coming second to the Conservative candidate in South Thanet, Kent, in the 2015 general election.
Reform UK had already selected a candidate to replace Mr Clacton, but Mr Farage said he had known for “many months” that there was a “possibility” that he would be replaced.
The constituency was previously held by UKIP after former Conservative MP Douglas Carswell defected to the party, leading to a by-election which he won.
More than 70% of voters in the constituency backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum, the fifth highest figure in the UK.
In 2017, Conservative candidate Giles Watling defeated UKIP to win the seat with a majority of more than 15,000 votes.
By 2019, with no UKIP or Brexit Party candidates standing, Watling’s vote total had risen to 24,702. He will re-defend his seat against the Conservatives in July.
“I’d be happy to give Nigel a tour of Clacton to see what it’s really like, but I’d hate to see the constituency become a victim of his vanity,” Mr Watling told the BBC.
Many Conservatives fear that Mr Farage playing a key role in the campaign could damage the party.
In 2019, the Reform Party’s predecessor, the Brexit Party, split the more than 300 seats won by the Conservatives over fears that it would split the pro-Brexit vote.
But Mr Farage has said he will not make a deal with the Conservative party at the next general election, with the party competing for 630 seats in England, Scotland and Wales.
The Reform Party had Lee Anderson as its MP in the last parliament, but he quit the Conservatives in March. Its leader, Richard Tice, stood down on Monday in favour of Mr Farage.
A Conservative spokesman said Mr Farage was “risking handing Keir Starmer a blank cheque”.
“Mr Farage knows the Reform Party will not win any seats but does not seem to care that a vote for them would only favour Labour,” he said.
Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats: “Rishi Sunak’s relentless pandering to reform is horrifying many centre-right ex-lifelong Conservative voters.”
“Mr Sunak needs to take a firm stance and rule out any possibility of Mr Farage joining the Conservative party in the future, including if he is elected as an MP.”
Other candidates who have announced their candidacy in Clacton so far are:
Giles Watling, Conservative
Jovan Owusu Nepaul, Labour Party
Matthew Benshiram, Liberal Democrat
Natasha Osven, Green Party
The full list of nominees will be published on the BBC News website after nominations close on Friday.
