Nigel Farage vows to be 'bloody nuisance' as he launches campaign to be Clacton MP
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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage vowed to be a “bloody nuisance” if elected to Parliament as he launched his campaign to be the MP for Clacton.
In his first major public speech since announcing his candidacy he addressed a crowd of hundreds at Clacton Pier.
Shouts from the crowd included “get ’em Nige” and “we love you Nigel”.
He told those gathered: “Send me to Parliament to be a bloody nuisance” as he declared Clacton “the most patriotic town in Britain”.
He promised he wouldn’t give them “woke politics” and claimed that he would liven up Westminster politics and “stand up for the little guy”.
He said the Tories deserved to be punished for their betrayal over Brexit.
He said: “We made an offer to the British people, we could get back our independence and control of our borders.
“But what has happened? The Conservatives have betrayed that trust. They’ve opened up the borders to mass immigration like we’ve never seen before.
“And they deserve to pay a price for that, a big price for that.”
Mr Farage said the general election was already effectively over: "That breach of trust from the Conservatives means they are finished, they are done.
"We are going to get a Labour government. Whether you like it or not, we are going to get a Labour government - the question is, who is going to be the voice of opposition?"
He urged voters to "send me to Parliament to be a bloody nuisance".
The veteran Eurosceptic on Tuesday set out his goal for Reform UK to effectively take over the Conservative Party.
He suggested a "chunk" of the Conservatives could join his party and compared the situation to Canadian politics, where Stephen Harper had been elected as a Reform MP but went on to head a "new Conservative" government.
Mr Farage had previously suggested he could be open to talks with the Tories, but suggested he could not work with them in their current form.
Instead, he told ITV's Good Morning Britain his goal was to take the Conservative Party over, rather than join it.
"You can speculate as to what'll happen in three or four years' time, all I will tell you is if Reform succeed in the way that I think they can, then a chunk of the Conservative Party will join us - it's the other way around," he said.
He pointed to Canada, where "Reform did a reverse takeover of the Conservative Party, rebranded it and Stephen Harper - who was elected as a Reform MP - became the Canadian prime minister for 10 years".
He said: "I don't want to join the Conservative Party, I think the better thing to do would be to take it over."
Home Secretary James Cleverly earlier unleashed a personal attack on Mr Farage as he sought to stop Right wing voters peeling away from the Tories to Reform.
On Mr Farage’s decision to become Reform leader, Mr Cleverly told GB News: “It’s interesting that he has changed his mind on this.
“It wasn’t that a long ago when he was questioning whether he really wanted to spend every Friday listening to the people of Clacton.”
He then argued that voting for Reform would make it easier for Labour to win.
Mr Cleverly denied the Tories could move further to the Right on issues such as migration as a result of Mr Farage’s return to front-line politics.
The Home Secretary and Conservative candidate for Braintree said: “Conservative policies are created with the British people in mind.
“We focus on their needs, on the needs of the British economy and the British people, and our policies are not dictated by any party.
“We have got a credible plan, it is a plan which is already working, bringing those migration figures down and projected to continue to do so under a Conservative government.”
This story is being updated. More follows.
