This article originally appeared in our Elevenses newsletter.
Nigel Farage says it’s ok to change your mind. “It’s allowed you know, it’s not always a sign of weakness, it could potentially be a sign of strength”, the new Reform UK leader told a packed delegation in London. Sometimes, he insisted, when you realise certain decisions haven’t worked out, a change of tack is the only rational thing to do, and only an idiot would think otherwise.
There was no shortage of irony as Farage announced he is set for an eighth attempt to become an MP by standing for Reform in the Essex constituency of Clacton. Having previously talked smack about the Peninsula town – “Do I want to spend every Friday for the next five years in Clacton?” (Farage, Feb 2024) – he politely moved aside the current candidate (poor Anthony Mack) so he can run for parliament just weeks after he announced that the election in the States was more deserving of his attention than the contest in the UK. In his words, “I can’t let down the people. I simply can’t do it, it’d be wrong”.
The announcement has led to a surge in membership for Reform, one person every 4.7 seconds if reports are to be believed, suggesting that the ultimate victim of the Brexit revolt will be the Conservative Party (Ho ho ho). Rishi Sunak has responded to the threat by announcing a visa cap and a new Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to show voters he’s willing to get tough on immigration. But Farage was already one step ahead of him, calling for ‘zero’ net migration in a way only single-issue parties with no realistic hope of getting elected can. It will take some radical re-thinking from within CCHQ to offset such threats from now on out.
And such threats there will be.
Farage has already signalled that he has loftier ambitions outside the charming seaside town of Clacton where he’ll hope to replicate Douglas Carswell’s success as a rare elected UKIP MP. Speaking to Good Morning Britain, he announced that he is looking to orchestrate a ‘reverse takeover’ of the Conservative Party by taking a significant bite out of the wounded carcass that will remain after the election and rebrand it in the same way Stephen Harper did in Canada – who was elected as a Reform MP and became the Canadian prime minister for 10 years after the previous Tory Party was effectively wiped out.
Quite why this route to political domination hadn’t occurred to him when he shunned a run for parliament before is anyone’s guess, and as we’ve already seen in the tetchy and tense interviews he’s given, standing up to scrutiny is hardly his strong suit. But Farage does raise an interesting point about UK politics as a whole. With Labour seemingly happy to occupy centre-right ground to win the election and the Conservatives set for reincarnation in Reform’s image, there’s a real threat that the whole political spectrum in the UK will drift to the right without us even noticing it. Those worried about what will come of the Conservatives post-general election would do well to spare a thought for what has already happened to the left, where a total media blackout has left progressive politics in the wilderness.
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