Farage Says Reform Must Take ‘Beachhead’ in Parliament to Hold Labour Government to Account

Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage on Gold Beach in Arromanches in Normandy, France, to comm
Getty Images
Oliver JJ Lane

If Reform UK doesn’t establish a “beachhead” in Parliament this election the incoming left-Labour government will govern “completely unchecked”, Nigel Farage has said.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage, now returned to front-line politics in the United Kingdom after a brief third career in broadcasting, says the election is already all but decided. Now the big question at the ballot box, he has claimed, is who is to oppose the coming Labour administration.

The centre-right Conservatives and centrist-globalist Liberal Democrats are incapable of performing this important function of holding the government to account, he has said in a flurry of media appearances, calling for voters to send his Reform UK Party, the political successor to the Brexit Party and UKIP,  to Westminster to shake things up and, in his own words, be a “nuisance” to the political establishment.

Meanwhile, Britain’s legacy media has made several attempts to slap down Farage with a ‘gotcha’ question alleging he was telegraphing secret racism with his criticism of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s D-Day gaffe which dominated headlines this week.

Speaking to The Sunday Express Farage said of the need of a political opposition with ideas from outside the consensus mainstream of Westminster that: “This election is over. Labour are going to win by a mile. The only question for voters now is who the opposition is going to be.

“Who do you want leading the opposition once Keir Starter is in Number 10 – Rishi Sunak, Ed Davey, or me? The Tories will be in opposition but can’t be the opposition because they spend their whole life arguing with each other.” He said Reform needs a “beachhead in Parliament” otherwise Labour will be left to “govern completely unchecked”.

Farage hit the same notes in a live interview with the BBC on Sunday morning, telling the state broadcaster: “Whether the [Labour] majority is 200 or 350 is almost immaterial. The real question here is who is going to provide a voice of opposition in Parliament and the country to a Starmer government. The Conservatives are incapable of it, they argue more with each other than they do standing up, fighting for their constituents or the country.

“I think Reform needs to be in the House of Commons. We’ve got a five year plan leading up to the General Election of 2029, we’re dead serious about this. The Conservatives had this chance, and they’ve blown it.”

Farage has been hit with repeated accusations that his candidacy has all but guaranteed a left-wing super majority in Parliament by damaging the Conservative Party, who have governed the United Kingdom for over 14 years. This time in power has been characterised by the party doing the exact opposite of what it promised at election time on some key issues, including reducing migration and taxation, a record of failure that leaves Farage saying they need to be removed from the political equation for their comprehensive betrayal.

Now the polling is turning and Farage’s Reform are even with the Conservatives in some areas, the Brexiteer has been left free to flip the narrative somewhat, claiming it is now the Tories standing in the way. He said: “If you look at the polls, in the ‘Red Wall’, Reform are ahead of the Conservatives and are now the challengers to Labour. If you look in Wales, it is now neck and neck between us and the Conservatives. So in the Red Wall a Conservative vote is a vote to put Labour in. The whole game is changing”.

Writing in the Telegraph, a Conservative-backing newspaper whose clear newfound support for a Farage insurgency will be a bitter pill to swallow for the Tory party, Farage said of his long term plan: “I am committed to building Reform UK into a major force in British politics and believe that now is the right moment. Nothing works anymore in this country; we are truly Broken Britain… Reform UK now intends to be that voice of opposition in parliament and the country.

“Reform is a patriotic party committed to ending the political establishment’s deadly addiction to mass immigration. We want to stop the poison of Left-wing identity politics in our schools and are on the side of millions of small businesses. If we can overtake the Tories in the polls in the coming days, it is possible, just possible, that something extraordinary could happen on July 4.”

Farage has been highly critical of the Prime Minister this week after Mr Sunak departed the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations on France’s north coast early to record a election campaign interview in Britain. The departure has been widely portrayed as a snub to veterans, but Mr Farage’s condemnation has been particularly scrutinised over claims of it having been racist to accuse the Prime Minister, whose parents were migrants, of not being patriotic.

Sky News gave this line of attack a go on Saturday and failed, as Mr Farage handily dismissed the points with historical data, and on Sunday morning the BBC seemed determined to try again, also failing to land the punch.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, for instance, put it to Mr Farage that: “you said that he wasn’t Patriotic, and you said that Rishi Sunak didn’t understand our history and our culture.”

Far from the Second World War being a white man’s conflict, as his interrogators’ questions seem to presuppose, Mr Farage responded to ITV that: “it’s far bigger than that. Actually, 40 per centof the entire contribution that we made, that we had in two world wars, 40 per cent came from what we now call the Commonwealth… and by the way, all volunteers. So I fully understand that history”.

Speaking to the BBC, Farage said it was a matter of “class and privilege” that set Sunak aside from the British majority

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.