IT'S (FINALLY) NIGEL FARAGE MP: EIGHTH TIME LUCKY FOR REFORM LEADER
Nigel Farage today vowed that Reform UK is 'coming for Labour' after he finally became an MP on his eighth attempt with a thumping victory in Clacton.
The party's chairman Richard Tice added that Reform was filling a 'vacuum' in right-wing politics in Britain after the party gained four seats in the General Election.
More than four million people voted for the 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.
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.
Mr Tice won Boston and Skegness, beating the Conservatives to secure his party's fourth seat of the night. He told BBC Radio 4's Today that 'we have given the opportunity to millions of people... to vote with their heart and what they believe in'.
Mr Tice predicted that demands for electoral change would 'grow and grow', adding: 'There's a huge vacuum on the right of British politics that we are filling.'
Also last night, businessman and former Southampton FC chairman Rupert Lowe won Great Yarmouth, also from the Tories, after Lee Anderson became Reform's first MP of the night.
After winning in Clacton, Mr Farage said there was now a 'massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it'.
But he added it is not just the Tories he is taking on, and 'we're coming for Labour, be in no doubt about that'.
'This is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,' he said.
Mr Farage overturned a 25,000 Conservative majority to take the Essex seaside town by more than 8,000 votes, while Reform beat the Tories to finish second in a string of constituencies.
It was the eighth attempt by Mr Farage to win a Westminster seat after years of trying.
He said: 'I think what Reform UK has achieved in just a few short weeks is extraordinary.
'We are going to come second in hundreds of constituencies.
'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. We're coming for Labour, be in no doubt about that.'
Mr Farage won the seat with 21,225 votes compared to the Tories' 12,820. Labour finished third on 7,448.
Shortly after, the party also took the seat of Great Yarmouth from the Tories. And Richard Tice won Boston and Skegness.
Just after 2am it was confirmed that Reform's candidate in Ashfield, Lee Anderson, comfortably held on to the seat.
The Tories, who won it in 2019 under Boris Johnson, finished in fourth with just 3,271 votes.
Mr Anderson, who defected to Reform from the Tories in March, got 17,062, with Labour finishing second on 11,553.
He said: 'I said a few weeks back that there was going to be a reckoning on election night, and Ashfield, which is the capital of common sense, they're part of that reckoning.
'This wonderful place which I call my home is now going to have a say in how this country is shaped in the future.
'I want my country back and Ashfield can play their part in that.'
However, the party failed to win in Barnsley North and South, in which the exit poll predicted it would be victorious.
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 in a sign of the scale of the revolt caused by Mr Farage's party, it came second in Blyth and Ashington, finishing on 10,857 votes and pushing the Tories into third on 6,121.
It came second in Sunderland Central with 10,779 votes to the Tories' 5,731, and in Houghton and Sunderland South by 11,668 votes to 5,514.
In Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, Reform beat the Tories with 7,815 votes compared to 4,228, while in Washington and Gateshead South it finished second with 10,769 votes to the Tories' 4,654. Labour won all these seats.