Nigel Farage says he’s aiming to be candidate for PM by 2029 ahead of Reform manifesto launch – UK general election live

a tactical voting guide for people wanting to use their vote in such as way as to ensure the election of the smallest possible number of Conservative or Reform UK MPs.

These are from Peter Walker, who was at the launch event this morning.

I’m at an event hosted by Best for Britain, who are putting out a guide to tactical voting to best oust the Tories. They recommend tactical voting:
Labour in 370 seats
LD in 69
Green in 3
SNP in 7
Plaid in 2
and ‘vote with your heart’ in 181

Do remember that these are just one group’s best recommendations, and that inevitably some of them will be bitterly disputed by other opposition parties.

Best for Britain has commissioned their own large-scale polling (22,000 people) suggesting just under 40% of all voters would consider voting tactically to get rid of the Conservatives (while 14% would do so to keep the Tories).

9.28am) may seem ridiculous, but it is less ridiculous than the prospect of Donald Trump becoming next US president would have sounded at the time of the 2012 presidential election.

In his Today interview Farage was asked about his support for Trump, and he only half defended him over his actions after he lost the 2020 presidential elections, when Trump refused to accept the result of the election and incited a mob that attacked the US Capitol in an attempt to the election result being confirmed.

When Justin Webb put it to Farage that Trump tried to overturn a democratic election result, Farage said: “That’s a matter of opinion.”

Asked to give his opinion, Farage replied:

What happened on January 6 should not have happened. Of that, there’s no doubt whatsoever. Did [Trump] actually urge people to storm the Capitol Building? No, he didn’t … He said ‘Go in peace’ to the protesters, but they didn’t.

Webb said it Trump did not mean ‘Go in peace’. He then asked Farage if he approved of Trump’s efforts to get Mike Pence, the vice president, to refuse to certify the election that Joe Biden won. Farage replied:

No, I don’t approve of objecting to elections, even though I object to much of what’s happening in our system with postal vote corruption and many other things.

Asked if he accepted Trump lost the 2020 election, Farage said:

I think he lost it because the law did nothing to prevent ballot harvesting etc.

Keir Starmer as PM.

He told the programme:

This is our first big election as a party. Our plan is to establish that bridgehead in parliament and to use that voice to build a big, national campaigning movement around the country over the course of the next five years for genuine change.

Asked by Justin Webb if that meant Farage was aiming to be a credible candidate for PM in 2029, Farage replied:

Yes, absolutely.

I think the disconnect between the Labour and conservative Westminster-based parties and the country, the thoughts, hopes and aspirations of ordinary people, are so far apart from where our politics is. And the funny thing is they show no signs of changing.

I was in those seven-way debates, one on the BBC, one on ITV, and the more that Angela Rayner argued with Penny Mordaunt, the more they sounded the same. There are no real, fundamental differences between these two parties.

Farage also said that, when he decided to stand as a candidate and to take over as Reform UK leader, he was making a “minimum five-year commitment” to build this movement.

Asked if he was committed to leading “a centre-right coalition” taking on Labour at the time of the next election, Farage replied: ‘That’s absolutely right. That’s our ambition and we believe it is achievable.”

Many commentators would query whether any movement led by Farage would be described as “centre-right”. For reasons explained here, the terms radical right or far right might be more accurate.

Some Tories would like see Farage playing this role as Conservative party leader (assuming he would be allowed to join). Some of his Reform UK colleagues just want to replace the Conservative party. Farage himself has suggested the two parties could merge in what he has called a reverse takeover. In the Today interview he was not asked about the exact mechanism by which he envisaged leading a rightwing opposition in five years’ time.

Rachel Reeves has indicated, saying also that most financial services companies have “not regarded Brexit as being a great opportunity for their businesses”, Peter Walker reports.

announced two weeks ago that he was going to take over as party leader and stand as a candidate, he justified this primarily on the grounds that the nation had been let down by the Tories.

Today he is launching his manifesto in Merthyr Tydfil in the South Wales valleys, an old mining area where the vote has traditionally been rock-solid Labour, and he says he is there because he wants to focus his attack on Keir Starmer’s party. In a statement released in advance, he said:

One of the reasons we are launching our Contract with the people of Britain in Wales is because it shows everyone exactly what happens to a country when Labour is in charge.

Schools are worse than in England, NHS waiting lists are longer than in England, Covid restrictions were even tighter than in England and now Welsh motorists are being soaked by literally hundreds of speed cameras to enforce the deeply unpopular new 20mph blanket speed limit in towns and villages.

Since devolution, the Welsh have been ignored by the London political establishment and let down by the Labour administration they elected.

Meanwhile, the Tories have been the official opposition almost solidly since 2016 and have achieved zilch, which probably explains why we are neck-and-neck with them in the polls in Wales.

So, if you want a picture of what the whole country will be like with a Starmer government and a feeble Conservative opposition, come to Wales and then hear us unveil a better future for all of Britain.

Until now Labour has not been too bothered about the increase in support for Reform UK because, overwhelming, that seems to be hurting the Tories a lot more. But with two and a half weeks of the election yet to run, it is possible that, if Reform UK changes it messaging, that could change.

Farage has been on the Today programme this morning where he half-defended Donald Trump over his role in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 and insisted that he could be a viable candidate to be prime minister at the next general election, perhaps in 2029. I will post the highlights shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: The Best for Britain campaign group publishes its tactical voting recommendations for the election.

Morning: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is campaigning in Devon and Somerset.

10am: John Swinney, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, gives a speech in the Outer Hebrides.

11am: Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, are on a visit at at port the south east of England. Starmer is doing a Q&A with workers.

Morning: Rishi Sunak is on a visit in East Yorkshire.

1pm: Nigel Farage is launching the Reform UK manifesto (which they not calling a manifesto, but a “contract” with voters) in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.

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Source: theguardian.com