- Populist leader offers clearer view of a possible Reform UK government
- Says it would end arrivals of illegal migrants by boat in two weeks
- Farage, a Brexit veteran and Trump ally, says main parties are in meltdown
- Reform UK riding high in opinion polls, though still behind major parties in donations
- Farage suggests next election might come earlier than 2029
BIRMINGHAM, England, Sept 5 (Reuters) - British populist leader Nigel Farage vowed on Friday to start preparing for government, saying the nation’s two main parties were in meltdown and only his Reform UK could ease the anger and despair plaguing the country to “make Britain great again”.
To a prolonged standing ovation by a crowd at the annual party conference, Farage for the first time offered a vision of how Britain would be under a Reform government: He pledged to end the arrival of illegal migrants in boats in two weeks, bring back “stop-and-search” policing and scrap net zero policies.
Can I assume that having another big right-wing party will just divide the conservative electorate? This has happened a couple of times in Canada.
Our other big right-wing party basically committed suicide, and most of their non pensioner voters have since fled to ReformUK, as well as a fairly consistent trickle of politicians defecting from the Conservatives to ReformUK.
If the Conservatives hadn’t gone completely insane they may well have split the vote between them, but it all seems to be coalescing around ReformUK at the moment.
It’s worth keeping in mind that a large proportion of Conservative voters are pensioners.