NIGEL Farage has announced he will stand for Reform in the General Election and has been installed as party leader.
Richard Tice said he had offered the top job to the party’s owner who will run in the former Ukip seat of Clacton in Essex.
It will be the eighth time the former MEP has run for a Westminster seat and the previous seven attempts have been unsuccessful.
Farage said that Tice (below), who was viewed as being answerable to the former Ukip leader because of the party’s unusual status a private company owned by Farage, would become Reform’s chairman.
It comes after Farage had previously ruled out running in the election, saying he would prefer to focus on the US presidential race, in which his friend Donald Trump is running for re-election.
Asked whether or not Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, Farage blasted the trial as a “kangaroo court”.
Speaking at a press conference in London on Monday afternoon, Farage said he wanted to lead a “political revolt” and insisted there were "no attempts at seduction" from the Tories to join their party.
He launched into a blazing attack on the UK’s immigration policy, which he called “massively irresponsible”.
Citing the election of Muslim councillors across England earlier this year, Farage said: “We find what happened after those local elections just a few weeks ago, of candidates winning in Leeds, in Burnley, in Bradford and elsewhere, standing shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, standing shouting ‘we are coming to get you’.
“The birth of sectarian politics in our country caused by massively irresponsible immigration policies. And it was the Labour Party that opened the door and who would have believed that a Conservative Party would have accelerated it.”
He said he had changed his mind on standing, saying he had felt “guilt” about ruling himself out.
Farage said that he had been approached by people on the campaign trail by people asking him to stand.
He said: “I simply couldn’t help feeling that somehow they felt I was letting them down.
“I’ve changed my mind. It’s allowed you know, it’s not always a sign of weakness. It could potentially be a sign of strength.”
He insisted he believed Reform could get more votes than the Conservatives. Rishi Sunak’s party are only a handful of points ahead of Reform in the polls.
Reform had already had a candidate in Clacton, who Farage said “knew six months ago it was a possibility” he could be usurped.
He will launch his candidacy proper in the sea-side, Brexit-backing town on Tuesday.
