Back to doing what he does best: Nigel Farage sips a pint and taunts warring Tories as a 'broad church with no common shared religion' as remaining MPs scramble for direction - amid calls for Reform to join forces with party and push it to the Right
Nigel Farage taunted the warring Tory party as a 'broad church with no common shared religion' as its remaining MPs continue to scramble for direction following their crushing election defeat.
Sipping his signature pint, the triumphant new MP visited Essex today amid calls for Reform UK to join forces with the Conservatives and push it to the Right.
He finally won election to the House of Commons at the eighth attempt after years of trying at Thursday's election, as he became the Reform MP for Clacton.
Asked today who he would like to see as leader of the Conservative Party, Mr Farage said: 'Honestly, I don't think it matters who they pick as leader.
'This party is split down the middle, they call it a broad church, well, it's a broad church with no common shared religion.'
Nigel Farage was pictured today continuing the election celebrations with his signature pint of beer as he chatted with punters at Wyldecrest Sports Country Club in Corringham
The party leader said today: 'Honestly, I don't think it matters who they pick as leader. This party (the Tories) is split down the middle'
Mr Nigel Farage and new Reform MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, James McMurdock (right)
But whoever manages to become Tory leader could make the decision whether or not try and bring Mr Farage into the fold, as the Right and Left wings gear up to 'battle for the soul' of the party.
Leadership jockeying is already ramping up with the 121 remaining Conservative MPs facing potential existential decisions about what direction to take.
Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Priti Patel, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and Vicky Atkins are all expected to throw their hats in the ring.
There are fears that the contest will descend into another damaging civil war as moderates - who still look to dominate the Parliamentary rump - and right-wingers vie for control.
Veteran Edward Leigh has given a first taste of the clashes to come as he blamed immigration for the poll meltdown, saying Mr Farage and Reform should be 'invited to join' - despite other senior figures saying they would not accept him.
But Mr Farage, 60, has made no secret of his desire for Reform to supplant the Tory Party, even though it secured only slightly more votes than Ukip in 2015 and five MPs.
The party leader surged to victory in Essex with a comfortable majority of almost 8,000 to join party chairman Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Rupert Lowe and James McMurdock in representing the party on the green benches.
He has been all smiles since his election success, and was previously pictured celebrating with his girlfriend Laure Ferrari on the night of the election.
He was pictured today continuing the celebrations with his trademark pint of beer in tow as he chatted with people at Wyldecrest Sports Country Club in Corringham, around an hours drive from his new seat.
Mr Farage said his aim was to 'build a mass movement for real change leading up to the next sets of elections'.
The party leader has said he wants to 'build a mass national movement over the course of next few years' with the aim of challenging the 2029 general election
Tom Tugendhat (left) and Dame Priti Patel (right) are currently second and third favourite respectively to take over the reins
Business secretary Kemi Badenoch (right) and Suella Braverman (left) are among the other likely contenders
Leadership candidates are slim after dozens of Tory figures - including a record number of Cabinet ministers - lost their seats in an election bloodbath
Edward Leigh, the new father of the House after narrowly holding his Gainsborough seat, told the BBC that the Tories had been 'completely trashed in this election because the right wing vote is divided'
Speaking this afternoon the Reform UK leader said: 'We will do what we can with five in Parliament, what I will do for certain is provide real opposition in the country.
'And my aim and ambition is to build a mass movement for real change, leading up to the next sets of elections.'
Asked how he would sell proportional representation to the public, Mr Farage said: 'Well, the fact that for every Reform MP there are 800,000 voters, and for every Labour MP there are 30,000 voters suggests something is very badly, fundamentally wrong.'
He added: 'We have five MPs, PR would have given us 97 MPs, but we are where we are.'
Mr Farage said Reform is 'going to do very, very well' in the Senedd election and based on how it performed in Scotland during the General Election, the party would 'very much be in the territory of winning seats in the Scottish Parliament too'.
And the new MP said 'with a couple of exceptions', the new Cabinet was 'the most inexperienced people ever to have got into a British cabinet'.
Asked for his thoughts on Keir Starmer's new Cabinet, Mr Farage said: 'With a couple of exceptions, they are I think the most inexperienced people ever to have got into a British cabinet.
Mr Nigel Farage with new Reform MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, James McMurdock (centre), and Jack Duffin, chairman of East Thurrock CFC (left) today
Asked for his thoughts on Keir Starmer's new Cabinet, Mr Farage said: 'With a couple of exceptions, they are I think the most inexperienced people ever to have got into a British cabinet'
Mr Farage said he thought the cabinet will find it 'very, very hard'
Regarding the migration crisis at Dover (pictured on Monday), Mr Farage said today: 'Let's face it, Keir Starmer does not have a plan to deal with it'
'If you actually look at their life stories, their backgrounds and bear in mind, these are people making executive decisions that fundamentally affect people's lives, I think they're going to find it very, very hard.
'And I say that because the country faces some really fundamental problems, I suspect this Government could be in trouble pretty quickly.'
On the Prime Minister scrapping the Rwanda scheme, Mr Farage said: 'Well he said he would do it, at least he's kept a promise I suppose.
'Look, Rwanda was never going to work. What Keir Starmer is proposing, which is, tackle the gangs, well, frankly, you know, the last Government were doing that for the last few years, it's not going to work.
'At the minute it's wild and windy, but we do have some pretty strong first hand accounts that as soon as we get a calm spell, they'll be crossing the English Channel in their thousands, and let's face it, Keir Starmer does not have a plan to deal with it.'
A local councillor met Mr Farage at the Essex club and told him he was previously a Conservative councillor, currently sitting as an independent but planned to join Reform UK.
Alex Anderson, from Stanford, who is a councillor on Thurrock Council, said after he met Mr Farage that he was elected in 2018, re-elected in 2022, both times as a Conservative candidate.
The 25-year-old said there was a 'disagreement over the budget a couple of months ago with the Conservative administration', which meant he 'voted against a council tax rise', had the whip suspended and now sits as an independent.
Mr Anderson said he spoke to Mr Farage about the General Election and how 'impressive' it was for Reform to get 4.1 million votes.
Nigel Farage called the event on Friday where he was joined by his fellow parliamentarians which was disrupted by protesters 'full-on theatre'.
He said: 'Well, it was full-on theatre wasn't it. We had protesters, I probably enjoyed it more than they did.
Reform UK's new MPs (L2R) Richard Tice, Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Rupert Lowe pose in London on July 5
The fifth new Reform MP for James McMurdock pictured with Mr Farage today
Mr Farage held a press conference with three of his four fellow MPs on Friday
Nigel Farage called the event on Friday (pictured) where he was joined by his fellow parliamentarians which was disrupted by protesters 'full-on theatre'
'But no, I mean, look, the one thing about press conferences that I do, complete contrast to what Sunak and Starmer have been doing, is we take questions from any press organisation, we're not afraid of anything.'
Meanwhile Mr Farage has already been praised for the win by his friend former US president Donald Trump.
The Republican presidential nominee wrote in a post on his social media site TruthSocial: 'Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a Parliament Seat Amid Reform UK Election Success. Nigel is a man who truly loves his Country! DJT.'
Mr Farage polled 21,225 votes, comfortably beating incumbent Tory Giles Watling into second with 12,850.
More than four million people voted for his party, giving it a 14 per cent share - with its candidates coming second in 89 seats, many in Labour-won areas of northern England and Wales.
The party leader said he wants to 'build a mass national movement over the course of next few years' with the aim of challenging the 2029 general election.
Following his election win, he immediately set his sights on taking on Sir Keir Starmer, adding: 'We are coming for Labour, be in no doubt about that.'
Farage gestures as he walks after winning his first seat in parliament in coastal town of Clacton, gaining nearly 25,000 votes
Mr Farage has been all smiles since his election success, and was pictured celebrating with his girlfriend Laure Ferrari on the night of the election
Mr Farage, pictured with Ms Ferrari on election night, said there was now a 'massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it'
Mr Farage posed for pictures with people young and old while he enjoyed a drink
Mr Farage speaks to the media during the visit to the Country Club in Corringham
Mr Farage said previously: 'There's no enthusiasm for Labour or Starmer whatsoever... this Labour Government will be in trouble very very quickly and we will now be targeting Labour votes'
Donald Trump (pictured together in 2016) led the the congratulations to his friend Nigel Farage on becoming a member of parliament for the first time
He said: 'My plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of next few years as hopefully be big enough to challenge the General Election properly in 2029.
'There's no enthusiasm for Labour or Starmer whatsoever... this Labour Government will be in trouble very very quickly and we will now be targeting Labour votes.'
Mr Farage's gains across the UK came just weeks after he shocked the Tories by U-turning on a decision to sit out the election after seven failed bids.
It is predicted the success of Reform will cause a huge battle for the soul of the Conservative Party in the weeks to come, with senior figures on the right open to some form of link-up.
Reform's manifesto was designed to outflank the Tories on the Right and included a series of single-sentence policies, such as raising the inheritance tax threshold to £2 million, scrapping stamp duty on properties worth up to £750,000 and quitting the European Convention on Human Rights.
It has been said that Reform's wide but thin support would not help their success in a first-past-the-post system and Mr Farage has been vocal about the need for changes to the electoral system.
Mr Farage celebrated with a glass of win as the exit poll was revealed on Thursday night
Mr Farage beat Tory incumbent Giles Watling as his party made serious vote gains across the UK
Meanwhile Mr Tice blasted the 'injustice' of the first-past-the-post electoral system, after the Liberal Democrats gained 71 seats with 3.5million votes. This meant the Lib Dems had 67 more seats than Reform despite having about 500,000 fewer votes.
The official 10pm exit poll projected the insurgent party's seat haul could hit 13 – a shock tally that sent shockwaves through Conservative headquarters. That was later revised down to four.
But the success at the election will bolster Reform's confidence as Mr Farage had previously said this election was only the 'tip of the iceberg' for the start-up party as they build to bigger success in 2029.
Mr Farage's electoral agent and Reform UK councillor Peter Harris has said their party leader is 'up for the challenge' of facing up to a Labour government.
On Mr Farage's potential impact in Westminster, Mr Harris said: 'He stood alone in the European Parliament, and he got the changes that he wanted and as he said to the European Parliament that when he first got there, they laughed at him and then when we left he said 'well, you're not laughing now'.
'So you know, I can see Nigel will be a huge voice not just for Clacton but a huge voice for so many people in this country that have felt abandoned and betrayed. So, yeah, I think Nigel is up for the challenge.'
