Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party were the biggest winners and losers of election night.
Farage, who less than a month previously changed his mind about standing, won a seat in parliament at the eighth attempt in the Clacton constituency in Essex.
Yet the party ended up with only five seats on an astonishing 14.3 per cent of the vote. The anomalies of the British first-past-the-post system mean the Liberal Democrats, who got 12.2 per cent of the vote, have 67 more MPs.
If the Reform party had got a proportionate number of seats to votes. it would have more than 100 MPs.
Schisms and sleaze plague Keir Starmer’s first Labour conference, risking long-term damage
Cities need to be run in new ways, and not just by officials, or councillors, says former British mayor
‘It’s only right that families are given every chance to get to the truth’: Legacy Act change welcome
Westminster elections leave Northern Ireland parties with choices and questions
The others elected were the former party leader Richard Tice (Boston and Skegness), former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson (Ashfield),former Southampton FC chairman Rupert Lowe in Great Yarmouth, and James McMurdock, after a recount at South Basildon and East Thurrock
[ 'We are coming for Labour': Nigel Farage elected to House of CommonsOpens in new window ]
These constituencies were among the most ardent Brexit-supporting parts of the UK.
The night could have been better as the exit poll suggested Reform would gain 13 seats.
It lost out in Barnsley North where it disowned its candidate Robert Lomas for racist comments he made about black people.
A jubilant Farage hailed the result given that Rishi Sunak’s surprise election announcement caught the party off-guard.
It succeeded despite having no money and very little organisation. Farage faced a tsunami of bad press about his stance on the Ukraine war and a number of candidates who had been making racist remarks, yet it made little difference to the final result.
“My plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years, and hopefully be big enough to challenge the general election properly in 2029,” he declared.
“What is interesting is there’s no enthusiasm for Labour. There’s no enthusiasm for Starmer whatsoever. In fact, about half of the vote is simply an anti-Conservative vote.
“This Labour government will be in trouble very, very quickly and we will now be targeting Labour votes. We’re coming for Labour be in no doubt about that.”
Farage will likely press for an end to the first-past-the-post system which disadvantages smaller parties like his.
However, there is no chance of the big two parties ever acquiescing voluntarily to replacing a system that gives them thumping majorities despite winning a minority of votes.
It will not be lost on Farage’s critics that he has steadfastly refused to consider a second referendum on the Brexit result though the result was so close. Yet the 2011 referendum on replacing the first-past-the-post system was lost by a two-to-one margin.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
