Nigel Farage made history on Tuesday when he entered Parliament as leader of Reform UK’s newly elected group of five MPs, 30 years after he first contested a British election.
The House of Commons will elect a speaker and then swear in new MPs on Tuesday afternoon, convening for the first time since last week’s general election. The 650-member chamber will include Nigel Farage’s coalition for the first time, his first seat since Britain left the European Union. This will mean Farage no longer has the Brussels seat he has represented for more than 20 years.
Mr Farage was elected last week in the coastal constituency of Clacton with 21,225 votes, a majority of 8,405 over the second-placed Conservative candidate. The Reform Party’s other new MPs are leader Richard Tice, who was elected last week in coastal Boston and Skegness, Rupert Lowe in the coastal constituency of Greater Yarmouth and James McMurdoch in the coastal constituency of South Basildon and East Thurrock. Returning to Parliament is former Conservative, and previously Labour, Lee Anderson.
(From left) Reform UK MEP Lee Anderson, Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, Reform UK MEP Rupert Lowe, Reform UK Chair Richard Tice and Reform UK MEP James McMurdoch arrive at the House of Commons in Westminster, central London, on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (Photo by Maja Smiekovska/PA Images via Getty Images)
(Front row, from left) Reform UK MEP Lee Anderson, Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, (second row, from left) Reform UK MEP Rupert Lowe and James McMurdoch arrive at the House of Commons in Westminster, central London, on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (Maja Smiekovska/PA Images via Getty Images)
Anderson was co-chairman of the Conservative Party before defecting to the Reform Party earlier this year. Last week’s election sealed his mission to represent his Ashfield, England, Midlands, residents under the banner of a new party. At the time of his departure, Anderson, a former coal miner and blue-collar conservative, complained that he and others like him were being left behind by the progressive tendencies of the established parties and said he wanted to “take home.”
Farage’s election to Parliament is the latest development in a decades-long political career as a leader of the Brexit campaign. Farage has sat in the Brussels Parliament for more than 20 years protesting Britain’s membership of the European Union but has never held a seat at Westminster, despite standing unsuccessfully for election seven times since 1994. Farage claims most of those candidacies were protests and not serious attempts to run for Westminster, but aimed at raising the profile of UKIP, but that he was serious when he ran for South Thanet in 2015 and was sabotaged by a vile Conservative campaign.
Indeed, a Conservative activist has been found guilty by a court of breaching electoral rules over massive overspending by the Conservative campaign against Farage.
Reform has arrived at Westminster and I look forward to hearing much more from all of us.
I am here to fight for Great Yarmouth and for the British people.
The real work is just beginning… pic.twitter.com/4p5XQl6lAu
— Rupert Lowe Senator (@RupertLowe10) July 9, 2024
Good luck to everyone. May the power of 4 million people support you in Congress 💪🏻#UKReform pic.twitter.com/dbt6F3ZMgZ
— Belinda de Lucy (@BelindadeLucy) July 9, 2024
The five arrived at Parliament on Tuesday morning escorted by private security – a necessary step given the repeated physical attacks on Mr Farage by activists – and were given passes to enter Parliament, whose first sitting takes place on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking outside Parliament, Mr Farage said: “I was driving past my alma mater this morning and I remember walking into this great historic place in September 1974 and thinking, ‘Wow, I’m a few years older now’.”
Farage’s electoral success has helped the Reform Party attract new members, and appears to be a key element of his strategy to turn it into a functioning national party. Farage, who went from dormant to the third-highest vote-getter in just a few weeks last month, has said he wants to democratize the party, set up national chapters, take on local councils and parliaments and prepare for the next general election in 2029.
Mr Farage has boasted that the party has “more than doubled membership in the last five weeks” and claims it is gaining new members at the rate of one every minute. Speaking about the battle ahead last week, Mr Farage said:
… What we are going to do from today is, first and foremost, to professionalise the party, to democratise the party… We have a big job. Literally, we don’t even have a branch organisation across the country. All of us, we have a lot of work to do over the next few months. We are going to focus on what we are doing, we are going to focus on getting the Labour vote, we are going to focus on vetting candidates for the English county elections next year, and then you will see what we are going to do.
I said this would be the first step of a very big journey. This was a five-year plan. A five-year plan. I believe that with the organization, funds and expertise, we can take a serious shot at the 2029 general election. Think of the resources we had just a few weeks ago, the lack of a large chapter organization, and very little funding. What we have accomplished in the space of a few weeks is nothing short of amazing. And I promise you that this is just the beginning of something really very big.
We are ready to open for business. 👊 pic.twitter.com/QDsFnodsrU
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 9, 2024
