Nigel Farage on course to secure first ever seat & Reform to win in 13 constituencies, exit poll predicts

NIGEL Farage's Reform is on course for an historic breakthrough -  with the exit poll showing it is on track to take big chunks of the Tory vote. 

The Brexit champion is on the cusp becoming the MP for Clacton after seven failed attempts while Reform is projected to win 13 seats.

5

5

If the poll proves to be accurate, it would put them behind Labour, the Tories and Lib Dems but above the SNP, who are predicted to win just 10 seats.

Farage's party is also tipped to win in places like Boston and Skegness, where his predecessor, Richard Tice, is standing, and in Ashfield, where Tory-to-Reform defector Lee Anderson faced dogfight with Labour.

Results for the party’s key targets are due around 4am this morning.

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Find out what time your constituency will declare the winner

'GIGANTIC MAJORITY' 

It's a political earthquake, says Piers as he weighs in on exit poll

The Reform effect is also expected to hit Labour-held seats in the North West and the Midlands.

Early forecasts also put Reform well on course to overtake the Lib Dems as the third force in British politics when it comes to votes cast.

The Reform boss had already predicted his party would secure millions of votes but only a handful of parliamentary seats, due to the first-past-the-post voting system which favours the two main parties.

And he has made it clear electoral reform will become central to his party’s post-election campaigning.

Under his leadership, UKIP won 12.6 per cent of the vote in 2015 — but only one seat, in Clacton.

Speaking at his last rally on the eve of the General Election, he warned: “The demand for electoral reform, by this time next week, will be in full cry. It’s coming.”

It is also no secret his sights are set on the next election in five years’ time, as he revealed he plans to challenge to be PM in 2029.

Nigel said success, for him, would be Reform being the catalyst for “a dramatic realignment of the centre-right of British politics”.

He recently insisted his conscience is clear and the Tories and Rishi Sunak have themselves to blame if Labour wins a landslide.

It was just over a month ago that he announced his shock election bid, which shook up the campaign and threw the Tories into panic.

After swooping in and deposing Mr Tice as Reform’s leader, the chief Brexiteer immediately appeared on Clacton pier to woo local constituents.

His rallies consistently gathered rapturous crowds, with ecstatic supporters mobbing him in the streets every time he visited.

His party started the election campaign polling on just 11 per cent, but surged to overtake the Tories in some pre-election surveys.

Support for the party then wavered when Mr Farage made claims that the West provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ugly racism rows also engulfed his campaign, with the party leader forced to ditch at least 11 candidates in the run up to polling day over their alleged comments.

5

Mr Farage was targeted by activists twice on the campaign trail — once when an OnlyFans model threw a milkshake in his face, and again when a trade unionist lobbed coffee cups at his battlebus.

He also ignited a row with the BBC over what he said was an unrepresentative Question Time audience.

He pledged to campaign for the abolition of the licence fee from day one if he became an MP.

The former MEP has long aimed to smash up the status quo in British politics, and will hope to use Westminster as a platform — just as he used the European Parliament to attack the EU.

Speaking to his prospective constituents in Clacton early in the campaign, he promised to “be a bloody nuisance”, adding: “You won’t get any woke, PC, nonsense from me.”

He is set to campaign hard for Reform’s four-point plan on immigration, which includes quitting the Strasbourg court, enforcing a zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration, creating a new Department of Immigration and returning small boat Channel migrants.

Reform has also pledged to abandon Net Zero targets and introduce a “patriotic curriculum” in schools, which would pair the teaching of Britain’s history of slavery with similar events from non-European contexts to “ensure balance”.

READ MORE SUN STORIES

SI YA!

Spanish island to become winter sun hotspot with new year-round UK flights

FUZZ LOVE

I've let my body hair grow out for 6 years - people might stare but I love it

Meanwhile, Reform’s economic policies include increasing the income tax threshold to £20,000, up from £12,571, which they say will lift millions of lower-paid workers out of paying tax altogether.

The party also wants to raise the top 40p tax rate starting point to £70,000, up from £50,000.

5

5