NIGE GOES NUCLEAR
I’ll make Tories pay for betrayal, Farage says as he vows ‘you won’t get any woke nonsense from me’ at campaign kickoff
Farage urged voters to send him to Parliament to 'be a bloody nuisance'
NIGEL Farage vowed to make the Tories pay for their "betrayal" as he kicked off his general election campaign.
The new Reform leader arrived to chants of “Nigel, Nigel, Nigel” from hundreds of adoring followers in Clacton.
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He urged them to send him to Parliament to "be a bloody nuisance" before promising: “You won’t get any woke, PC, nonsense from me."
The leading Brexiteer sent Tories panicking yesterday as he announced he would after all stand in the election and replace struggling Reform leader Richard Tice.
Addressing the large crowd in the seat he will fight for on July 4, he said: “I will stand up and fight for you, I will give you my best and I will do what I have done for the last quarter of a century in politics.
“I will be unafraid, despite what everybody says, despite what names they call me, they are so stupid it only encourages me really, in fact, send me to Parliament to be a bloody nuisance.”
Declaring war on the Tories, Mr Farage accused them of "betraying" the trust of voters, adding: "They opened up the borders to mass immigration like we have never seen before and they deserve to pay a price for that. A big price for that.”
He also promised the crowd: "I do know one thing — a woman can’t have a penis.
“You won’t get any woke, PC, nonsense from me because I’ve always told it as it is and stood up for what I believe in."
Some of the people gathered at the launch told The Sun that only Mr Farage could rescue Clacton from its status as one of the worst-rated seaside towns in the UK.
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Longtime resident Peter Tokley, 82, said: “I think we should give him a go. I wasn’t going to vote for anyone but now he’s running we should see what he can do."
The Conservatives held Clacton in 2019 with a majority of 24,702 in an election in which the Brexit Party, led by Mr Farage, stood down candidates to help then-Tory leader Boris Johnson.
Clacton was the scene of a Ukip by-election win in 2014, triggered by Douglas Carswell’s defection from the Tories.
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*Graphic shows what party could hold which seats after the 2024 General Election
Mr Carswell held the seat in 2015 before the Tories regained it in 2017.
Earlier this morning, Mr Farage warned he would "under no circumstances" do a deal with the PM to stand his candidates down.
The leading Brexiteer said the Tories had already lost the election and were a "party of the past".
And he insisted talk of a deal with the Tories on our Never Mind The Ballots show was "rhetorical" and no approach on either side had been made.
General Farage is on the march & 'jittery' Tories are 'freaking out'
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When asked if he would stand aside for Tories, he told the BBC: "Nope. There are no circumstances whatsoever.
"We have been betrayed by a Conservative Party that I gave considerable help to back in 2019 and boy did I.
"I got rid of Mrs May by forming the Brexit Party and they had their most crushing defeat in 200 years.
"I stood aside in over 300 seats for Boris Johnson and we were told that we would get control of our borders, we were told the immigration numbers would come down. They have exploded.
“I feel betrayed by them, millions of voters feel betrayed by them and even though there are some people in the Conservative Party who I fought with during Brexit and other battles, I am afraid they are part of a party who are well past their sell-by date.
"The brand is ruined, they have lost the election already."
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Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Farage was asked by Ed Balls: “You were on The Sun TV last week talking to Harry Cole, you said ‘I’ve done (the Tories) some huge favours as a party, give me something back’."
But Farage insisted he had received no calls from the Conservatives at all, adding his answer on Never Mind The Ballots was “rhetorical”.
He went on: “I did help them enormously back in 2019 and what they’ve done is betrayed that trust.
“Not from the Conservative Party itself. The only phone calls I’ve really had are people saying, ‘Please don’t stand against me’.
“Nothing constructive whatsoever. Remember, at the heart of the Conservative Party, they loathe me, they always have.
“I cannot do a deal with people who betrayed my trust."
He went on: “Let’s face it Ed, Labour have won the election already. It’s over.
“The question is who is the voice of opposition going to be that you need in a healthy democracy, and it can’t be the Conservative Party.
“They’ve spent most of the last four years fighting each other instead of fighting for the country, and I believe the time is now right for a political revolt and a new movement in British politics that is much closer to ordinary folk.
“Our aim, our ambition, and what I’m going to try and do is be that voice of opposition in the next Westminster parliament.
“The long-term aim is to build a political movement that can challenge in the 2029 General Election.”
KICKED IN THE BALLOTS: FARAGE'S ELECTON DEFEATS
By THOMAS GODFREY, News Reporter
NIGEL Farage has had seven previous attempts at winning a seat in the House of Commons but has failed every time.
His first bid came in 1994 while UKIP was a small protest vote party - with the ex-broker losing his deposit after winning a pitiful 1.7% of the vote.
His fortunes continued to improve as the movement to leave the European Union gathered momentum, but even in 2015, a year before Brexit, he failed to beat the Tories to win the South Thanet seat despite turning in his best electoral performance to date.
KICKED IN THE BALLOTS - FARAGE'S ELECTION DEFEATS
1994 Eastleigh by-election - 952 votes (1.7%) - 4th
1997 General Election (Salisbury) - 3,332 (5.7%) - 4th
2001 General Election (Bexhill and Battle) - 3,474 (7.8%) - 4th
2005 General Election (Thanet South) - 2,079 (5%) - 4th
2006 Bromley by-election - 2,347 (8.1%) - 3rd
2010 General Election (Buckingham) - 8,410 (17.4%) - 3rd
2015 General Election (South Thanet) - 16,026 (32.4%) - 2nd
Farage also insisted he would not be spending much time during the campaign in America, where he has become a key campaigner for Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Mr Farage said: “I clearly could not spend much time in America if I was in Westminster.
“Doesn’t mean I could not go at all but certainly it would be a change of priorities.”
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Yesterday we revealed the campaigner is pencilled in to give one speech at a Trump rally later this month in Detroit but will attempt to arrive and leave the USA within hours.
Mr Farage told GMB he is tempted by a 'reverse takeover' of the Tories - similar to what happened in Canada.
He said: "You can speculate as to what'll happen in three or four years' time, all I will tell you is if Reform succeed in the way that I think they can, then a chunk of the Conservative Party will join us - it's the other way around.
"Reform did a reverse takeover of the Conservative Party, rebranded it and Stephen Harper - who was elected as a Reform MP - became the Canadian prime minister for 10 years".
He added: "I don't want to join the Conservative Party, I think the better thing to do would be to take it over."
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He also said he wanted to get net migration figures down to ZERO - despite it currently standing at 685,000.
David Cameron had vowed to get the figure down to the tens of thousands.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary James Cleverly said he was surprised by Mr Farage standing at the election
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He told Sky News: "The last time I heard him make reference to Clacton, he was saying that he didn't want to spend every Friday in Clacton.
"Reform has always been a vehicle for Nigel Farage's self-promotion, I think Richard Tice is now discovering that rather painfully."
ANALYSIS: This is the Tories' worst-case scenario
By HARRY COLE, Political Editor
WHAT a difference a weekend makes.
It was only last week the now-leader of Reform UK sat in the Never Mind The Ballots studio and said he would sit this one out - he wasn't going to run.
Now he is running, in Clacton, in Essex. The only seat that UKIP, or The Brexit Party, or the Farage-istas ever held.
This will send chills down the spines of Tory strategists.
Their worst-case scenario was Nigel Farage sweeping back in, standing and possibly winning a seat.
Their second worst-case scenario was Nigel Farage sweeping across the country, in an open-top bus, campaigning all over the place.
It sounds like now, he is going to try and do both.
He has declared today that it is his goal to take over and wipe out the Conservative Party, and make Reform the biggest voice on the right.
He says he will win millions of votes - millions more votes than UKIP won in 2015, at the peak of their powers. He wants to go further.
This is an astonishing day in the election campaign - and it was all getting a bit dull.
This is really, really bad news for Rishi Sunak, but really, really good news for Keir Starmer.