Nigel Farage won’t stand as MP, Reform leader hints

Reform party leader Richard Tice has given his strongest hint yet that Nigel Farage will not stand in the general election.

Mr Tice said his “gut instinct” was that his party’s founder and honorary president would “campaign nationally” rather than seek to become an MP.

He said that while recent polling showed Mr Farage could win in the staunch Brexit seat of Clacton in Essex, he believed he is “less likely” to stand.

If he were to seek election, it would be his eighth attempt to become an MP.

Mr Farage founded what is nowreformuk–thennamed the Brexit Party – in 2018. He stood, and lost, in five general elections and two by-elections for the UK Independence Party (Ukip).

Mr Tice said: “Nigel’s got a big decision to make. There’s a recent poll in Clacton, saying that he would win if he stood. I think that’s probably less likely. But, my gut instinct is that he won’t want to sit on the touchline.

“I think that he will probably say ‘I’m going to campaign nationally’ and I hope he does.

“I want him to get his shoulder behind the wheel, help as much as possible.”

The Brexit Party did not field any candidates against the Conservatives in the December 2019 election after Boris Johnson committed to leaving the EU by 2020. It stood only in opposition seats and did not win any.

But pollsters believe that this time around, the Conservatives are facing a growing threat from Reform. Although still small, the party’s poll ratings grew to an average of around 9 per cent by the end of 2023, compared with 6 per cent at the start of the year.

Mr Tice suggested Mr Farage would reprise the role he played in the 2019 election, when he was the face of the Brexit Party’s national campaign while not standing for a seat in Parliament himself.

“Butwhathechoosestodois a decision for him. The more help he can give the better.”

A poll commissioned in January by Arron Banks, the exukip donor and Brexit supporter, showed Mr Farage would comfortably win the Clacton seat from Conservative MP Giles Watling.

The poll found that if he were to stand in Clacton at the next election he would win 37 per cent of the vote, beating Mr Watling by ten percentage points.

Following the poll, Mr Farage hinted that he may stand in the Essex seat.

“I have to say to you that this poll does make the balance of probabilities towards getting back on the pitch stronger,” he said.

However, another Reform party source close to Mr Farage also suggested that his desire to become an MP was “not a great as it once was”.

The party source said: “If you’re Nigel and you’ve got the ear of former and possibly future President Trump, would you bother standing as an MP? He’s got a great life. Why spoil it?”

Mr Farage’s first attempt to enter the House of Commons was in 1994, when he stood as a Ukip candidate in a by-election for the Hampshire seat of Eastleigh. He won 952 votes and 1.7 per cent of the vote.

The last time Mr Farage stood for Parliament was in 2015, when he campaigned to win the Kent constituency of South Thanet, where he came second with 32.4 per cent of the vote, just under 3,000 votes short of defeating Conservative Craig Mackinlay.

Reform leader Richard Tice, inset, hopes Nigel Farage, campaigns nationally