As Britain votes for its next prime minister One expert on Thursday believes Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party will help shape British conservative politics in this and future elections.
“He’s going to make a lot of noise,” Matthew Tyrmand, a conservative political activist and consultant to political parties across Europe, told Fox News Digital. “He’s clearly a walking billboard of ideas. People follow him, he’s visible, so he’ll have a lot more influence than the weight of the party’s representation in parliament would suggest.”
Tyrmand met Farage 10 years ago at CPAC, and has spoken to him regularly since then throughout his various political endeavours, including Brexit and his latest bid for political office.
The Reform UK party, founded in 2018, appointed Farage as its leader shortly afterwards. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announces early elections Over the past six weeks, the reform has led to a decline in support for the Conservative Party and will likely increase its representation in Parliament by the addition of its current member, Lee Anderson, who left the Conservative Party earlier this year.
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Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage and local candidate Mark Butcher watch the Denmark-England UEFA Euro match at the Armfield Club on June 20, 2024 in Blackpool, England. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Despite these significant gains, Tyrmand suggested Farage’s influence would remain outside parliament for the time being.
“You know he’ll be the opposition leader, it’s going to be an aggressive issue,” Tyrmand said. “Formally, of course it won’t happen, but conceptually and in visibility, a case will be made for it.”
“This will set them and Reform up if the Labor government falters, and I’m willing to bet they will do more of the same, regardless Unrestricted immigration “If the government doesn’t protect working class people, wages will still be stagnant,” he said.
According to the Telegraph’s survey data from Savanta, Reform has around 17% support, while the Conservatives have around 20%.
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Tyrmand said that in the British system, because votes are spread across different constituencies, even if the Reform Party got 10% to 20% of the vote, it would still get very few seats overall.
Nigel Farage enjoys a pint during the then Brexit Party’s general election campaign tour in Seaham, England on November 24, 2019. (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
“That alone will shed light on how indirectly, disproportionately representative this system is, and people will be angry about that, as they should be,” he said.
Tyrmand argued that Farage’s recent stint on the popular reality show “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here” helped dispel the mysticism surrounding his public persona: Farage finished third in a competition in which participants must put themselves through a series of tests, According to The Guardian,
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage addresses voters during a general election campaign event in Clacton-on-Sea, England on July 3, 2024. (Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“People realise he’s not the boogeyman that The Sun, The Mirror and The Telegraph and everybody else makes him out to be. The way he campaigns and watches football matches in the Euro Cup, he’s someone people want to have a beer with,” Tyrmond said.
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“That’s a big part of their appeal and support, but it really tapered off after this reality show in December,” Tyrmand said.
British newspaper The Sun, which the Palmco Research Group estimates has a reach of 8.7 million people a day, endorsed Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over Farage but included him in its final appeal to the British public.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (left) steps into the ring with boxer Dereck Chisora during a visit to Clacton-on-Sea, England on July 3, 2024. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Normally, only the Labour and Conservative parties make such bids, and despite a larger attendance than Reform, the Liberal-Democrats did not have a chance to make their point.
In his closing argument, Farage said,He said that switching support from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party would only lead to “a change in the middle management” and that “Britain’s elite are happy to see Keir Starmer replace Rishi Sunak.”
“I’m serious about breaking up their rotten two-party system,” Farage wrote. “After Thursday, Reform UK can be the real opposition in Parliament. We will hold Starmer accountable for his plans to open Britain’s borders to even more immigrants and betray Brexit by bowing to the EU.”
Then-Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and other members of the European Parliament wave flags ahead of a vote on the withdrawal agreement in Brussels on January 29, 2020. (Reuters/Yves Hermann)
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“And this is just the beginning,” he said. “Over the next five years, I am serious about building a mass movement for real change. A vote for Reform UK is not a protest vote, it is not a hypothetical vote, it is not a wasteful vote. It is a vote to change Britain forever.”
Farage contested seven times for a seat in the British Parliament but failed to win, but he succeeded in the European Parliament as European MP for South East England in the United Kingdom Independence Party.
