Donald Trump Celebrates Ally's Election Performance

Donald Trump has congratulated Nigel Farage after the Reform UK leader won a seat in the British Parliament in the early hours of Friday on his eighth attempt.

In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump wrote: "Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a Parliament Seat Amid Reform UK Election Success. Nigel is a man who truly loves his Country! DJT."

The center-left Labour Party won in a landslide at Thursday's general election in the U.K., displacing the Conservative Party which has been in government for the past 14 years. As a result, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will become prime minister, replacing incumbent Rishi Sunak.

Farage has been one of Trump's most vocal foreign supporters, travelling to the United States to support his 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns and appearing at a number of rallies with the Republican.

After Thursday's votes were counted, Farage won the parliamentary seat for Clacton, in the eastern English county of Essex, with 21,225 votes defeating Conservative incumbent Giles Watling who came second with 12,820 votes.

After initially declaring he wouldn't stand in the general election, called by Sunak on May 22, Farage dramatically reversed course and announced he would not only stand but take over the leadership of Reform UK, formerly led by his ally Richard Tice, on June 3. Reform UK was a rebranding of the Brexit Party, which Farage previously led and represented in the European Parliament prior to Britain's exit from the European Union.

During a short victory speech following his win, Farage described the Conservative Party as "a broad church that has no shared religion" before warning: "We are coming for Labour...be in no doubt about that."

Speaking to Newsweek, Suzanne Evans, formerly a senior figure in Farage's UK Independence Party (UKIP), said his triumph was the result of disillusionment with the Conservatives.

She said: "Nigel Farage taking leadership of Reform and standing for Parliament was a game changer. Finally, millions of voters who felt the Conservatives had utterly failed them—on immigration, on tax, on the nanny state, Net Zero, [and] issues such as free speech—had somebody they could vote for.

"To get nearly 15 percent vote share from a standing start is quite incredible, and Farage was the man who was responsible for that, reaping success driven by his force of personality and conviction politics. They say, if at first you don't succeed try, try, try again. On his eighth outing, Farage finally won. The House of Commons is about to get [a] much more interesting place and, provided Reform can hold it together and avoid splits and infighting, they will only get stronger."

Farage campaigned heavily on a platform of reducing net immigration into Britain, which hit a record figure of 745,000 in 2022, and also pledged to slash a number of major taxes.

As of 3 a.m. ET on Friday, with results for all but six of the 650 parliamentary constituencies announced, Labour has 410 MPs, an increase of 209 over their previous figure and more than the 326 needed for a majority.

The Conservatives have 119 seats, less than the 165 they won in Tony Blair's 1997 general election victory, followed by the center-left Liberal Democrats who were up 63 seats to a total of 71. The Scottish National Party shrunk to the fourth biggest party with just nine MPs, down 38 from their previous figure.

Reform UK won four seats in total, including Farage's in Clacton, with the others being Boston and Skegness, Great Yarmouth, and Ashfield. Overall they won 14 percent of the vote, more than the Liberal Democrats at 12 percent, but received far fewer seats due to Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system which rewards political parties with geographically concentrated support.

Farage spoke at a Trump rally in October 2020 where the then-president described him as "one of the most powerful men in Europe." The British right-winger returned the praise, calling Trump "the single most resilient and bravest person I have ever met in my life."

A number of prominent Conservatives lost their seats after Thursday's vote including Liz Truss, who briefly served as British Prime Minister from September to October 2022 before being brought down after her economic policy triggered widespread financial instability.