The 100-Year Life Health Education and Government
Nigel Farage has never won a seat in the UK’s House of Commons. And yet on Monday morning he told the BBC he “absolutely” planned to run for prime minister in 2029.
The Reform party leader, speaking on the day his “contract” (rather than manifesto) was published, said he could be the most viable opposition figure in parliament after 5 July. One poll, an outlier, put his party in second place last week ahead of the Conservatives.
The UK’s first past the post system is notoriously punishing for smaller parties, but Farage is not the only person who believes his future is brighter than the Tories’. Privately and increasingly in public, Conservatives are worrying that Farage presents an existential threat to their party.
He correctly argues that the UK’s electoral system is becoming more presidential with every cycle, and that voters often back individuals rather than parties. In a contest of technocrats who are afraid of saying anything, saying something – even without substance – may prove persuasive.
A handful of polls now suggest the Conservatives could end up with fewer than 100 MPs.
To bring that about, Farage still has to do something he has failed to do seven times before: become an MP. But should he succeed, he will be given a new platform – in his words, a “bridgehead” – from which to promote his anti-immigration agenda.