Nigel Farage has predicted that Labour will hold power for a decade because anger at the Conservatives is so widespread.
The ex-Brexit Party leader claimed the successor outfit Reform UK may come to “replace” or fundamentally change the Tories if they are forced in opposition.
Mr Farage also said giving up his lucrative broadcasting work to return to frontline politics for Reform would be “a big price to pay” – suggesting that he may stay out of the 2024 general election.
“I think Labour have got a decade in power almost written in already, such is the level of disenchantment at the Conservatives and what they’ve done,” Mr Farage told GB News.
He added: “I don’t know whether the Conservatives are going to be replaced, whether they’re going to be changed.
“What I do know is that Reform is going to play a very important role in realigning the centre right of British politics to give us a proper choice.”
Farage says Labour will win regardless of how Reform squeezes the Tories— (Getty Images)
Asked whether rising support for Reform would help Labour win power, Mr Farage said Sir Keir Starmer would win regardless of how successful the hard-right party was at taking votes from Rishi Sunak’s party.
“It’s a long-term game and we’ll level with the voters on that,” he said. “Ultimately, vote Reform, you’ll get Labour. Here’s the truth of it. We’re going to get Labour anyway.”
He added: “This attempt to try and squeeze the Reform vote won’t work because they’re doomed now.”
There has been speculation at Westminster that Mr Farage could return to take up a top role for Reform UK in the election campaign, though he is unlikely to replace leader Richard Tice.
Asked if he was willing to take a up a top role at Reform again following his success in the I’m A Celebrity, he said “giving that [TV work] up would be really quite a big price to pay in many ways”.
He added: “I don’t yet know what I’m going to do but make no mistake, I do think Reform is on the right path over the course of the next six years to change British politics in a way that most can’t imagine.”
The deputy Tory chairman Lee Anderson told Mr Tice to “pipe down” in his attacks on the Tories as the right-wing rivals squabble at the start of an election year. He also dubbed the Reform leader a “pound shop Farage”.
Reform are on 9 per cent in the latest YouGov poll, just behind the Lib Dems on 10 per cent.
Labour received a five-point poll bounce, increasing its lead over the Tories to a mammoth 24 points. YouGov puts Sir Keir’s party on 46 per cent – more than double support for Mr Sunak’s party on 22 per cent.
