Nigel Farage has — for the time being — shot down the idea of rejoining the Conservative Party in order to save it from the expected electoral whiteout.
Amid widespread speculation about the Brexit leader’s political future, Mr Farage reaffirmed his support for the Reform UK party, which was born out of his Brexit Party, and declared that he has no interest in joining “a Tory party in denial about immigration”.
“I believe the Tories have as good as lost the next general election,” Farage predicted in The Telegraph on Saturday.
It comes after Farage raised eyebrows and fueled media speculation about a potential return to the Conservative Party, which he left in 1992, by attending (as a journalist for GB News) the Tory Party conference in Manchester earlier this week for the first time since he left the party.
Following his appearance, in which he was treated like a rock star by young Tory supporters, clamours began to ring out for Britain’s most consequential politician in decades to act as a saviour and fend off the resurgent left-wing Labour Party from taking the reigns of power in the next general election.
Lights, Camera, Action! 📸 pic.twitter.com/kClFxzVFR2
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 3, 2023
Former government minister Jacob Rees-Mogg subtly urged the “great man” to come back into the fold this week and even Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Farage would be welcome back in the “big tent” of the Conservative Party.
However, it appears that Mr Farage has no intention of saving the party from their apparently inevitable defeat. Indeed, with his backing of the right-wing populist Reform UK of longtime ally Richard Tice, the Brexiteer appears intent on seeing the Tories face electoral collapse, with Reform set to siphon off even more voters than they would have lost otherwise.
For Farage, the principal failure of the Conservative government — which has been in power for thirteen years — has been on immigration. Not only has successive Tory governments failed to stop the illegal boat migrant crisis in the English Channel, but they have also overseen a drastic increase in the number of foreigners allowed into the country legally — despite promising otherwise.
“Immigration is the single issue which has caused the greatest disconnect in Britain between our political and media class versus centre-ground public opinion. The plain fact is that a great deal of the electorate believes there has been too much – both legal and illegal – in recent years and that Britain’s public services, and wider society, are suffering as a result,” Mr Farage wrote.
In contrast, Reform UK will campaign on a promise that “net migration must be drastically reduced” and that the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights and its associate court in Strasbourg which Britain is still bound by as it is technically a separate institution from the EU and therefore the UK’s membership was unaffected by Brexit. The court controversially intervened last year to stop a deportation flight of illegal migrants from Britain to the country of Rwanda where the UK government is seeking to relocate illegals in order to have their asylum claims decided offshore rather than housing them in hotels on British soil.
Today I told Reform UK conference there is a huge gap in the political market to leave ECHR and stop mass migration.
No other party even wants to discuss these important issues. pic.twitter.com/D8PIrEkIBW
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 7, 2023
Some have suggested that refusing to participate in the next election — rather than taking responsibility for the expected Tory defeat — could put Farage in a position of strength in order to take control and transform the party in his own image.
“With a slimmed down Tory parliamentary party, consisting of politicians who will for the most part represent solidly conservative constituents, Farage could succeed in gathering enough nominations among MPs to land himself a spot in the final round—a two-horse race decided by Conservative members, most of whom love Farage—and claim the prize that has long eluded him under Britain’s electoral system: leadership of a mainstream party,” wrote Harrison Pitt in the European Conservative.
Indeed, although not explicitly saying so, Mr Farage has hinted that this could be his preferred outcome, writing: “Yes, we will have to live for a few years with a Labour government. But unless the situation is confronted, unless the arguments are changed, and unless we can prompt a realignment of the centre-right in British politics straight away, I think we will be doomed to live in a Britain that will be beyond rescue.”
Nigel Farage’s Influence on Next Conservative Leader Grows as Party Wakes Up to Classic Valueshttps://t.co/0ydzeTyezH
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 3, 2023
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