Nigel Farage has announced he will run as Reform UK’s candidate in Clacton, after previously saying he would not stand in July’s general election.
The former UKIP and Brexit Party leader said he had changed his mind after spending time on the campaign trail, adding he did not want to let his supporters down.
The Essex seat, which was the first to elect a UKIP MP in 2014, has a Conservative majority of 25,702.
Mr Farage also revealed he was taking over from Richard Tice as Reform’s leader for the next five years.
After Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unexpectedly called a general election for 4 July, Mr Farage told the BBC six weeks was “not enough” to fight a constituency while campaigning for the party around the country.
In a statement on 23 May, the founder and honorary president of Reform UK had said he would “do my bit to help in the campaign”.
But he suggested his priority would be helping his friend, Donald Trump, return to the White House, describing the US election in November as having “huge global significance”.
However, Mr Farage told a news conference in central London that since talking to voters he saw “there is a rejection of the political class going on in this country in a way that has not been seen in modern times”.
“The other thing that really shook me in a way last week were the number of people coming up to me in the street saying ‘Nigel, why aren’t you standing?”‘ he said.
“I simply couldn’t help feeling that somehow they felt I was letting them down.”
Mr Farage has been a visible figure in Reform’s campaign so far, joining Mr Tice in Skegness and Lee Anderson, the party’s only MP, in Ashfield.
He has stood to be an MP unsuccessfully seven times, most recently in South Thanet, Kent, in the 2015 general election, when he finished second behind the Tory candidate.
The other candidates announced as standing in Clacton so far are:
Giles Watling, Conservative Party
Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, Labour Party
Matthew Bensilum, Liberal Democrats
Natasha Osben, Green Party
A full list will be published on the BBC News website after nominations close on Friday
Source link
