Farage might return after voting reform

NIGEL FARAGE has said that the voting system must be reformed if he is to return to politics.

The former Reform UK leader, who declared he had quit politics in March 2021, has said the first-past-the-post system would need to be abolished and proportional representation instated if he were to resume his political career.

Writing in today’s Sunday Telegraph, Mr Farage reveals that he has “been bombarded by requests in recent days to re-enter front-line party politics”.

However, he calls on “significant high-profile figures” to help him “overcome the first-past-the-post structure”. He said that this would be the only way a “serious challenge” could be mounted against the Conservative Party.

“As the leader of Ukip during the 2015 general election, in which the party polled nearly four million votes and won just a single Commons seat, nobody should be surprised that I support electoral reform,” Mr Farage said.

He called on “genuine Conservatives” to consider their positions, saying the Tories have become “the party of the big state”.

“Under them, high taxes have been condoned and the failed economic model of low growth and productivity is tolerated,” he added.

“In other words, since 2010, they have morphed into a social-democrat metropolitan organisation. And the coup of the last few days means the party will not be turned back, whoever becomes its leader.”

Mr Farage said that it was for this reason that the Tories should be replaced, adding that under a proportional representation (PR) system “millions of voters in this country would start to feel empowered again, just as they did in the referendum of 2016”.

“The desire for proportional representation is growing strongly in the country and within the Labour Party, too,” he added.

“A massive Labour majority next time would likely see any campaign to implement PR slide down the order of priorities. But a narrow Labour victory, or a situation in which Labour was forced into an arrangement with the Liberal Democrats, would bring about this much-needed change to our electoral system.”

He predicted that Boris Johnson could win the Tory leadership election and “return to No10 after a brief exile”.