Napkin, anyone? Turkey with all the trimmings never looked so unappealing for Marvin Humes and Nigel Farage on Farage could be back to fight next election

Reform UK’s honorary president will find it hard to resist taking on Tories at the ballot box, says leader

NIGEL FARAGE could make a return to front-line politics at the next general election in a more prominent role for Reform UK, the party’s leader has said.

Richard Tice told that Mr Farage would “find it very hard to resist” playing a bigger part in taking on the Conservatives at the ballot box.

Mr Farage is due to return to the UK next week after appearing on ITV’s

which takes place in the Australian jungle.

The former Ukip and Brexit Party leader is the honorary president of

Reform, the political party positioned to the Right of the Conservatives.

It has picked up support in recent weeks amid the Tory split over migration, with a string of recent polls showing one in 10 voters backs it.

Analysis from the pollster More in Common shows the surge in support for Reform is set to cost the Tories as many as 35 seats and hand Labour a Commons majority.

Mr Tice expects to talk to Mr Farage about taking on a more prominent role in Reform, perhaps as chairman, when he returns to Britain. He said: “This will be an immigration election, whether the main parties like it or not. It is a great opportunity for Reform.

“Nigel is very well trusted on [the migration issue]. He needs to make the judgment – does he want to come back full time into politics?

“The more help, as far as I’m concerned, the better. I think he will find it very hard to resist. The opportunity once and for all to punish the Tories will be unbelievably tempting to him.”

Since stepping back as Brexit Party leader, Mr Farage has hinted at a return to front-line politics, but there are reasons he may choose not to. He hosts a GB News show, the continuation of which could be complicated if he took on a more central role with Reform.

Mr Farage was also expected to spend a considerable amount of time in the US next year ahead of the November 2024 presidential election. He campaigned for Donald Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, during the 2020 election.

Mr Farage has also not ruled out trying to join the Conservative Party and become its leader, which would be made harder if he campaigned against the party at the next election.

Any temptation to return to front-line politics could also be complicated by whether Mr Tice is willing to give up the Reform leadership.

Reform is polling at about 10 per cent nationally, compared with a typical score of 5 per cent a year ago, and far above the 2 per cent secured by the Brexit Party in 2019.

Analysis by More in Common for this newspaper, based on voting intentions, shows that the Conservatives are on course to secure 35 fewer seats than if Reform did not exist.

In that scenario the Tories would win 265 constituencies across England and Wales, almost certainly depriving Labour of a majority and creating a hung parliament.

But the projected picture changes drastically if Reform wins 10 per cent of the vote, with the Conservatives reduced to 223 seats and Sir Keir Starmer securing a comfortable lead.

Luke Tryl, More in Common’s UK director, said that Red Wall voters who delivered Boris Johnson’s landslide made up most of Reform’s new support.

He said their reasons for switching included a perception that the Tories had “broken promises” on immigration and the UK was a “light touch”.

“There’s a feeling that the Conservative Party have talked a good game but haven’t done anything about it, and that frustration is what you’re now seeing driving some Tory 2019 voters into the arms of Reform,” he said.

Mr Tice described the past three weeks, which have seen a reshuffle and Conservative infighting over record migration numbers, as a “tipping point”.

He said 1,200 new members had signed up to Reform in the five days following the appointment of Lord Cameron, which was “received appallingly” by Tory voters.

“People are realising that the Conservative Party do not own the philosophy of Conservatism”, Mr Tice said.