Seems Farage has an announcement to make at 4pm today.

I doubt Sunak agrees with you Urmstongran. As Germanshepherdsmum said, it’s good news for Labour though, so I may have cocktail on Farage tonight, henceforth named as the Sideshow Knob. 🍹

Every person who is eligible to vote can put their X where they choose.

Derogatory remarks and rudeness says far more about the person/s throwing out the comments than the person/people they are aimed at.

To be honest I’m not so sure ‘it’s good news for Labour’. I think Reform will pinch seats from them too - especially in the Red Wall constituencies. Yes they’re Labour (hence Red Wall tag’ but some (many) voted Brexit and have been let down - and know that Starmer wants ever closer ties with the EU so they may surprise the pollsters yet.

That has decided me, I will be voting reform. We need change and we need a charismatic leader who will stand up for Great Britain
And where exactly does Nigel Farage come into this?

Urmstongran

To be honest I’m not so sure ‘it’s good news for Labour’. I think Reform will pinch seats from them too - especially in the Red Wall constituencies. Yes they’re Labour (hence Red Wall tag’ but some (many) voted Brexit and have been let down - and know that Starmer wants ever closer ties with the EU so they may surprise the pollsters yet.

The top 3 priorities

The cost of living

NHS

The economy

Brexit isn’t mentioned at all.

Urmstongran

To be honest I’m not so sure ‘it’s good news for Labour’. I think Reform will pinch seats from them too - especially in the Red Wall constituencies. Yes they’re Labour (hence Red Wall tag’ but some (many) voted Brexit and have been let down - and know that Starmer wants ever closer ties with the EU so they may surprise the pollsters yet.

The point is though that even if Reform get votes, as indeed UKIP did, they won’t win seats. If you look at the predicted Labour seat position they will win back the Red Wall. There are very few if any seats where it will be a two horse Labour/Reform contest, so it’s the Tories who will lose out.

I just had a look at the prediction for Ashfield, Lee Anderson’s seat. According to the poll prediction that is a likely Labour seat, which is interesting - it could be a three horse race.

Well I think it’s good to see Farage back in the fray. As a red wall voter who feels betrayed by the Conservatives but has no inclination to go back to Labour, or try the Marxist Greens, or Liberal Democrats who tried to subvert the Brexit referendum, Reform UK will get my vote whatever the outcome.

And who’s to say they won’t win any seats? It’s too early to tell. Who knows - maybe some Tory MPs (not the One Nation wets) May yet be in secret talks to join. I’m expecting further impetus with this. Reform know they need to turbo boost the narrative.

I suppose Trump didn’t want his services.

turbo boost the vile rhetoric about the so called " small boats"

Its shameful really.

John Curtice tonight: “ Farage’s return is a disaster for the Tories
This is the news Rishi Sunak had been dreading – and with good reason”

Farage is taking part in the political debate this Friday with Angela Rayner and Penny Mordant. Should be interesting.

Urmstongran

Look at his past, he told the EU that he was going to get Britain out. They laughed at him. “Well you’re not laughing now” There is no doubt that it was Farage wot did it. He has great influence, and many voters like him.

I loved that moment, too.

Its neither good or bad news for labour as they will win comfortably. This is about what happens in a few years time. Its possible reform will be the opposition by then.

Urmstongran

John Curtice tonight: “ Farage’s return is a disaster for the Tories
This is the news Rishi Sunak had been dreading – and with good reason”

A disaster for the tories because reform is going to split the right wing vote. This is not something that the tories have ever had happen to them before. All it means is that it lets a progressive candidate in, either lib dem or labour.

If Farage manages to get himself elected (which is not a certainty, he will find that as a minority of one or perhaps, by a miracle, two reform party MPs in parliament he will have minimal voice or influence. He won't have a little claque of MPs behind him like he did when he was an MEP. His vote won't affect anything. He'll just be, at best, an irritant.

I suspect, Ug, once again you are doomed to disappointment...

Well if I’m disappointed I’ll take it on the chin MaizieD. But at least using my vote for Reform I’ll feel at rock bottom I tried for “no more of the same by the uniparty” as there’s not much blue sea between Tory and Labour these days. I really cannot vote for either in the hope for improvement going forward.

I don't even think that itv was Farage who got us out of the EU. It was Cameron's political ineptitude, Boris Johnson and that lying promise about the NHS on the side of a bus, and Cumming's use of Cambridge Analytica and targetted dark adverts' on social media.

There is 💯 percent racism in mainland Europe as well. It is a basis for many of the scary far right.

Urmstongran

Well if I’m disappointed I’ll take it on the chin MaizieD. But at least using my vote for Reform I’ll feel at rock bottom I tried for “no more of the same by the uniparty” as there’s not much blue sea between Tory and Labour these days. I really cannot vote for either in the hope for improvement going forward.

Completely agree. As Ann Widdicome says ‘if you want change you have to vote for it’.

Interesting that Sunak’s (reportedly) immediate response is to threaten to tack even further right, which will simply alienate any centrist/soft-right voters who have stuck with the Tories, and will split the ‘mad, swivel eyed loons’ as a Cameron ally described Tory activists, even more.

And, of course, risk destabilising the GFA.

He really is a very poor politician.

A disaster for the tories because reform is going to split the right wing vote. This is not something that the tories have ever had happen to them before All it means is that it lets a progressive candidate in, either lib dem or labour

Oh but they have…remember UKIP?
In 2006, Farage officially became leader of UKIP and, under his direction, the party adopted a wider policy platform and capitalised on concerns about rising immigration, in particular among the white British working class. This resulted in significant breakthroughs at the 2013 local elections, 2014 European parliamentary elections, and 2015 general election
After the UK voted to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum, Farage stepped down as UKIP leader, later joining the Brexit Party.

Clacton has a massive Conservative majority. Outside Jaywick and a couple of other pockets, it's a "typical" Conservative area - semi-rural, older demographic and low non-white population.

If I were a Conservative voter in Clacton, there's no way I would be tempted to vote for Farage (I'd continue voting Conservative). He would be far too concerned with his image nationally to bother being a decent constituency MP. The area doesn't have a high immigrant population, so what would Farage do to improve the life of most people in the area. I'd actually be quite insulted that he chose my area for one of his tricks to stay in the headlines.

But it only ever had 2 MPs, which made it insignificant in Parliament. And although it had a significant number of MEPs they achieved nothing in the European Parliament. It was all a bit performative but lacking in substance.

If Cameron hadn't been so lacksidaisical over the terms of the Referendum we'd still be in the EU. As it is at least two thirds of voters now think leaving was a mistake.

A disaster for the tories because reform is going to split the right wing vote

I have written before I dont consider the tory party right wing anymore. Quite far from it actually.

Not convinced Reform are the Party to fill the gap, but we shall see.

I just looked up Jaywick, which I knew nothing about. I expected it to be a town similar in size to Clacton, but it’s not, it’s less than one tenth as big, only 5000 people live there - so a large village size really.