Farage, 60, announced he would contest the Conservative-held seaside seat of Clacton in Essex, where 73 per cent of the constituency voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
He claimed that the Conservatives would be swept away on a wave of disdain for the political establishment and were “on the verge of total collapse”. Millions of people, he said, would feel let down if he didn’t “lead from the front”.
He claimed the encouragement voiced by voters on the campaign trail last week convinced him to about-turn, saying: “I’ve changed my mind and I’m not ashamed of it one little bit”.
Farage said that a rise in immigration over the past decades of Conservative and Labour governments had caused housing problems and a decline in living standards.
“The population explosion has devalued the life of Britons in the most extraordinary way,” he said.
Before taking questions from the media, he finished his speech by alluding to the successful Brexit referendum he had long campaigned for: “I tell you what, I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again. I’ll surprise everybody ... We are going to be the voice of opposition.”
Although most polls forecast that Reform will not win any seats, it is expected to take Tory votes in a way that benefits Labour or the Liberal Democrats.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was not worried about Farage standing as an MP.Credit: Bloomberg
It will be Farage’s eighth tilt at trying at a seat in the House of Commons, having first tried in 1994 at the Eastleigh byelection. He was, however, a member of the European Parliament for two decades before Britain quit the EU.
He most recently stood in South Thanet in 2015 where he earned 32.4 per cent of the vote, finishing second to the Conservative candidate.
Farage insisted that, even if he was elected as MP, he would still spend time in America supporting Trump in the US election, but if elected would not be able to spend the amount of time he’d planned.
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Speaking earlier, Sunak said he was not worried about Farage standing as an MP.
“At the end of the day on 5 July, one of two people will be prime minister, either [Labour leader] Keir Starmer or me,” he said.
A Conservative spokesman said Farage “risks handing Keir Starmer a blank cheque”.
Both Sunak and Farage have ruled out a pact in the election, preventing a repeat of 2019 where Reform decided to stand down candidates in Tory-held seats and helped Boris Johnson deliver an 80-seat majority for the Conservatives.
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