Nigel Farage has been elected as the MP for Clacton, finally succeeding in getting a seat in parliament at his eighth attempt. The Reform UK leader’s victory came on a night when the hardline rightwing party surged in support elsewhere, winning four seats by 4am on Friday.
Richard Tice, Reform’s chair, won the Lincolnshire constituency of Boston and Skegness, calling it “the proudest day of my life”. The former Conservative deputy chair Lee Anderson successfully defended his seat in Ashfield, and former Southampton football club chairman Rupert Lowe won Great Yarmouth.
Farage defeated the Conservative candidate Giles Watling, who had represented the coastal constituency in Essex since 2017. Farage won 21,225 votes to Watling’s 12,820, a majority of 8,405.
In a speech after his victory, Farage served notice that his party would be turning its guns on Labour. “We are coming for Labour … be in no doubt about that,” he said. He ruled out working in parliament with the Conservative party but opened the door to Tory MPs coming over to Reform.
Reform had been projected to win as many as 13 seats according to the 10pm exit poll, but after Farage’s victory, expectations were tempered and the party believed it would win about four seats. Early declarations underlined the surge in support for the party in strong Brexit-supporting areas of north-east England.
