Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage announced on Monday that he will stand in this year’s UK general election, vowing to “Make Britain Great Again”.
Farage’s decision comes less than two weeks after he announced he would not stand in the election to focus on the US presidential election. Farage, who has stood for parliament seven times, is now seeking his seat in the seaside town of Clacton in eastern England in the July 4 election.
“So I’m back. I’m standing in this election. I’ve taken over as leader of Reform UK,” Farage said in a video posted to X, referring to the Brexit Party’s successor. “Do you know why? I see this country heading for ruin. I believe in Britain and the boring idiots who run Labour and the Conservatives aren’t worth my space.”
“Let’s make Britain great again,” he added.
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Nigel Farage announced at a press conference in London that he would become the new leader of Reform UK and stand in the general election due to take place on 5 July. (Yui Mok/PA via The Associated Press)
“This is an immigration election,” Farage said at a press conference announcing his candidacy on Monday.
“We have to build a new house every two minutes just to accommodate people coming into the UK legally. We have to really understand the impact on the health service, the impact on infrastructure, the impact on everything else. This is the great problem of our time. The population explosion is devaluing ordinary British lives in the most extraordinary way,” he added.
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Nigel Farage campaigned with President Trump in Goodyear, Arizona, during a rally for the 2020 US presidential election. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Farage, a supporter of former President Trump, said on May 23 that he would not run because “while the general election is important, the election in the United States on November 5th has huge global implications.”
“A strong America as a close ally is essential to our peace and security,” Farage said at the time. “I will support the grassroots movement in the US in any way I can.”
Nigel Farage said on Monday that immigration was “the great issue of our time”. (Henry Nichols/AFP via Getty Images)
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In announcing his campaign on Monday, Farage said he had decided not to run because “I cannot disappoint the millions of people who will be disappointed in me if I do not lead this fight from the front”.
