NIGEL FARAGE FACES DOWN FIVE HECKLERS AT REFORM UK PRESS CONFERENCE

Nigel Farage's speech was interrupted by seven hecklers today as he responded by shouting 'boring' after winning a UK parliamentary seat at his eighth attempt.

Reform UK's leader was attempting to give a press conference in Westminster this afternoon when he was repeatedly interrupted by people in the audience.

Mr Farage arrived at the event to the sound of dance music and a standing ovation from supporters, with the Reform UK logo and 'Britain Needs Reform' on the wall.

But then a heckler started interrupting amid calls from the audience for them to be removed. The man was then escorted out before more shouting was heard as Mr Farage, who was elected as the MP for Clacton overnight, stood behind a podium.

The further hecklers were also then removed one by one as the press conference descended into chaos and Mr Farage repeatedly shouted 'boring' in response.

Mr Farage also accused one of the hecklers who interrupted him of being 'steaming' and shouted 'boring!' nine times as a second heckler started speaking.

Both members of the audience were escorted out of the venue. As one man started shouting at him, he responded: 'Are you downwind a couple already?

'You've had a bigger lunch than I have. Cor, he's absolutely steaming isn't he? That's all right, there's still plenty of beer left in the pub, mate.'

As a fourth heckler interrupted him, the Reform UK leader said: 'You'll do yourself a nasty mate. You'll have a stroke if you carry on like this.'

Mr Farage, facing further heckling from a fifth person, joked: 'This is good preparation for the House of Commons I suppose, isn't it? It's going to be very lively in there.'

As a woman shouted, Mr Farage added: 'Oh do buck up really, please love, I'm so sorry.' He shouted 'bye darling' as she was removed.

Mr Farage added: 'Any more for any more?' After a pause, a man shouted: 'Actually yes.' Mr Farage added: 'We haven't organised this very well, have we?'

Once the press conference could begin properly, Mr Farage also outlined his desire to make changes to the party.

He said: 'Above all what we're going to do from today is we're going to professionalise the party, we're going to democratise the party and those few bad apples that have crept in will be gone, will be long gone, and we will never have any of their type back in our organisation. You have a 100 per cent promise on that.'

Mr Farage then said Reform UK's focus will be on going 'after Labour votes'.

He added: 'Old Labour was very, very patriotic. It believed in the country. It believed in its people. New Labour far less so.

'And the journey that Lee Anderson has been on is a journey that at least a couple of million people have been on, and it'll be many, many more by the time we're finished, because no doubt, our priority now is to go after Labour votes. That is what we're going to be doing.

Introducing Reform's Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, Mr Farage said: 'Lee Anderson took a brave decision. 

'He decided to join Reform UK. He was much mocked and derided by colleagues who had similar political opinions to him but didn't have the guts to do it. They've all lost their seats overnight.'

Mr Anderson then claimed he would be looking at Sir Keir Starmer's Government in the Commons and thinking 'what has our country come to'.

The Reform UK MP said the UK's Prime Minister and his 'motley crew absolutely scares me to death, I'm going to be sat on the green benches next week looking at them and thinking what has our country come to'.

In the early hours of today, Mr Farage was declared MP for Clacton shortly after Mr Anderson became the party's first MP of the night with victory in Ashfield.

Reform's party chairman Richard Tice won Boston and Skegness, while former Southampton FC chairman Rupert Lowe won Great Yarmouth – both from the Tories.

Some 4.1million people voted for Reform, 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.

Earlier, Mr Farage said Reform was 'coming for Labour', while Mr Tice described Reform as filling a 'vacuum' in right-wing politics in Britain.

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.'

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'.

He 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.

And Mr Farage said 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.

While Reform UK was formed in 2018, Mr Farage has sought to become an MP multiple times without success.

He was a member of the European Parliament for 20 years, during which time he campaigned fiercely for the UK to leave the EU.

Mr Farage 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.

Mr Farage said in a speech at the election count: 'It's not just disappointment with the Conservative party, there is a massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it,'

He told reporters Reform will be a 'non-racist, non-sectarian' party and this election is the 'beginning of the end' for the Tory party.

'This is just the first step, I set out with a goal to win millions of votes, to get a bridgehead in Parliament and that's what we've done so I'm very pleased,' he added.

He said the Reform party would move forward 'very rapidly'.

He said: 'I've got to professionalise it, I've got to democratise it, I've got to get rid of a few idiots that found it too easy to get on board. They will all go, they will all go, this will be a non-racist, non-sectarian party. Absolutely and I give my word on that.'

Shortly after, the party also took the seat of Great Yarmouth from the Tories. And Mr Tice won Boston and Skegness.

Just after 2am it was confirmed that Reform's candidate in Ashfield, Mr 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.

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2024-07-05T14:15:49Z dg43tfdfdgfd