Nigel Farage: My message to Conservative Home readers – it’s time to join the revolt

Nigel Farage is the leader of Reform UK, and their prospective parliamentary candidate in Clacton.

Before I even announced that I would stand in the General Election, I predicted that Reform UK would get more votes than the Conservative Party on 4 July.

After just two weeks of campaigning, I am confident that we will – and I’m more confident than ever that I can lead the real opposition to the Labor government that we all know is coming.

British politics reached a potential tipping point last week, when a major YouGov poll put Reform ahead of the Tories. The response of the Conservative leadership was effectively to blame Reform, and me, for leading their voters astray.

But it cannot be my fault that Tory support is in freefall. They are to blame for their own problems.

Let’s be clear, the Conservative vote would be collapsing even if I had chosen to spend the campaign on a sunny beach somewhere. All that I have done is to offer voters a realistic alternative opposition.

I understand that it might be difficult for some readers of ConservativeHome to come to terms with what is happening at the party they have supported for so long. I used to be a Tory too, and it was me that got Boris Johnson his thumping (and now squandered) majority by standing aside in hundreds of seats at the last election.

But the hard truth is that, after 14 years in government marked by many unfulfilled pledges and broken promises under four prime ministers, the Conservative Party is now a broken brand.

Has there ever been such a gap between a Tory government and the millions of people who voted it into power? Has this government lived up to the name Conservative on any issue, from immigration, to taxation, to education?

We all remember how Boris galvanized support by promising to “get Brexit done” in 2019. Yet many disaffected Conservative voters can see that we are still no closer to taking back control of our borders and laws than we were five years ago.

In particular, the Conservatives have failed to control legal or illegal immigration. Since 2018, over 4,000 boats carrying over 120,000 people have landed here. In the last three years alone, 3.5 million immigrants have come to the UK. Can any Conservative seriously claim that this is what people voted for in 2019?

Little wonder that many are looking for an alternative and turning to Reform. We are now beating the Conservatives in many parts of the country. And in what are often called the ‘Red Wall’ seats, the former Labor strongholds captured by Johnson in 2019, we are significantly ahead.

In desperation, the Conservative leadership has repeated tired claims that a vote for Reform is a wasted vote and that deserting the Tories means handing Sir Keir Starmer’s Labor a “blank cheque” in government.

The reality, however, is that on 5 July we are going to see Starmer in Downing Street whoever you vote for. The election is already over and Labor has won, albeit largely by default.

The real question facing us now is, who is going to lead an effective opposition to the Labor regime for the next five years?

In many seats, especially the Red Wall, a vote for the Tories really would be wasted; the best way to hand Starmer a “blank cheque” would surely be to believe that the Tories can form a coherent opposition.

The divided, directionless Conservative Party has proven itself ineffective in government, even when starting with an 80-seat majority. After the Tories are heavily defeated next month, they look set to be even less potent as a rump of MPs in opposition.

It often seems that the Tories have spent more of the past four years fighting each other than they have fighting for the interests of the country. Just last week, we saw Suella Braverman arguing that Tories should welcome me and unite the right, while David Cameron insisted that I had no place in their party.

How are we supposed to trust the Conservative Party to unite and stand up for Britain, when they cannot even agree on what to do about Nigel Farage?

I am confident that I can now be the voice of an opposition that will stand up to the Labor government and hold Starmer to account. I have been pretty clear and consistent in what I stand for.

I’m not afraid of a fight. I won’t bow to Twitter pressure or to a mob on the streets; I’ve taken on the European Union and the big banks. I’m confident I can now take on a Labor government that will have almost no honeymoon period, will inherit deep problems, and is so clueless how to get out of the country that its six key election pledges do not say a word about immigration.

We need Reform MPs in Parliament to make our opposition count. We are on the road to making it happen, building the resistance to ensure that Britain under Labor is not a one-party state. My message to ConservativeHome readers is: come on, join the revolt. It’s time.

Britain is broken; Britain needs Reform. You’ve been so badly let down by the Conservative Party that it really must be time for something – and someone – new, who can unite the right. What have you got to lose?