Great Britain: Nigel Farage Also Runs for Office

Nigel Farage is standing as a candidate in the next UK election scheduled for July 4, 2024.

The man who played a seminal role in the Brexit process that led Britain out of the European Union is returning to active politics and will be the candidate from the Reform UK Party, which in 2019 helped in founding, on the ruins of the Brexit Party, a liberal, populist formation located to the right of the Tories.

An unexpected move, given that Farage himself had said he would not participate in this election. “I changed my mind because I can’t disappoint the millions of people who supported me. We will be the voice of the opposition, and I’ll tell you one thing: I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again, I’ll surprise everybody,” he stated at a press conference, explaining that nothing else in Britain works, from health care to roads.

Farage took Labour’s victory for granted, ruling out agreements with the Tories, whom he seeks to replace as the main opposition force. And his candidacy puts further pressure on Rishi Sunak, who risks losing a large percentage of the vote (Reform UK has around 11% and could still win thanks to an electoral sprint by a star like Farage) in a context that already sees him 20 points away from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

With the Conservatives in disarray and on the eve of a declared electoral defeat, some analysts even foresee a “coup” among the English right, similar to what Donald Trump has done to the Republican Party in the United States.