Nigel Farage’s UK Reform Party set to win THIRTEEN seats according to exit polls

Farage dramatically announced his candidacy in Clacton just weeks before polls opened this morning, sending support for Reform UK soaring.

According to GB News’ forecast, Reform UK is set to win 17% of the vote, just eight points behind the Conservative Party.

UKIP won 12.6% of the vote in 2015, with Douglas Carswell holding on to Clacton but Mark Reckless losing in Rochester & Strood.

Responding to the exit poll, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “This is incredible.

“We’ll see what happens, but if that’s the outcome, it would be an important first step for this – I’m going to call it a movement – a political party is only part of what we represent.

“It’s a movement that aims to represent ordinary people, the silent majority.”

Reform UK is running a number of high-profile candidates alongside Farage, including former Conservative MP Lee Anderson in Ashfield and former leader Richard Tice in Boston & Skegness.

Labour looks set to win by 170 seats, with 410 seats.

However, this result appears to be slightly lower than some opinion polls had predicted, with Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997 seeing 418 MPs returned to the House of Commons.

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The Conservative Party is bracing for its worst electoral performance since 1906, with Rishi Sunak holding just 131 seats.

Reform UK’s breakthrough appears to suggest a major fragmentation of the centre-right vote across much of England and Wales.

Conservative insiders were particularly worried about the rise of reforms following Farage’s return to mainstream politics.

Following the release of tonight’s damning exit poll, a Tory source told GB News: “I hope Reform voters will regret what they did.”

However, the populist party also hoped to take the fight to Labour in pro-Brexit constituencies in the Red Wall.