After seven unsuccessful attempts, Nigel Farage, a former Member of the European Parliament, won in Westminster, marking a notable achievement for his Reform UK party.
Farage won over Conservative candidate Giles Watling, who had represented the coastal constituency in Essex since 2017. Farage garnered 21,225 votes to Watling’s 12,820, achieving a majority of 8,405. In his victory speech at a leisure centre in the seaside town, Farage announced that his party would now be targeting the Labour Party. "We are coming for Labour … be in no doubt about that," he declared, according to The Guardian's report.
Who is Nigel Farage?
Farage, the face of Euroscepticism in the UK, campaigned for Brexit as the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and later led the Brexit Party before founding Reform UK. Farage has oscillated between politics and media roles and has been associated with various political parties.
The revolt against the establishment is underway. pic.twitter.com/xB7DQuvXWT
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 4, 2024
Farage's political journey began in 1992 when he left the Conservative Party after the UK signed the Maastricht Treaty. He became a founding member of UKIP and first ran unsuccessfully for parliament in the 1994 Eastleigh by-election. Farage was elected to the European Parliament as an MEP for South-East England in 1999 and remained there until 2020. As UKIP leader, he became a familiar face on TV and achieved significant success in the 2009 European elections, where UKIP outperformed Labour and the Liberal Democrats. He played a leading role in the 2016 Brexit referendum and, following the vote in favour of leaving the EU, resigned from UKIP.
According to BBC reports, ahead of the 2024 general election campaign, Farage had insisted he would not stand for the House of Commons. However, on June 3, he announced he would be Reform UK's candidate in Clacton and would take over as the party's leader once again.
UK Elections 2024 results
The 2024 general election saw the Labour Party end the 14-year rule of the Conservatives, with Keir Starmer poised to become the Prime Minister — the first for Labour since 2010. Starmer declared, “Change begins now,” while outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the mandate as a “thoughtful verdict” and pledged a smooth transition of power.
Rishi Sunak secured 47.5 per cent of the vote in his Richmond and Northallerton constituency in northern England, winning by a narrower margin than expected, the New York Times reported.
