Nigel Farage’s six-year masterplan to reshape British politics: ‘We’re the opposition now’

Nigel Farage unveiled his six-year masterplan to reshape politics yesterday, declaring: “We’re the real opposition now.”

The Brexit warrior revealed he is on a mission to build a “mass movement” for lasting change. And he warned he is ready to stage a hostile takeover of the Tories if he wins a seat in the Commons on July 4.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express, the Reform UK leader said: “This election is our beginning. It’s the start of a serious attempt to create a coherent party that genuinely believes in this country. It’s about establishing a group of people in Westminster who are united on key policies.”

Mr Farage spoke out as a recent opinion poll took his party to within two points of the Conservatives. Last night Rishi Sunak’s ministers cranked up efforts to stop the Farage juggernaut by warning that a vote for Reform would simply hand victory to Labour.

But sipping gin and tonic in a Westminster watering hole, Mr Farage hit back: “This election is over. Labour are going to win by a mile. The only question for voters now is who the opposition is going to be.

“Who do you want leading the opposition once Keir Starter is in Number 10 – Rishi, Sunak, Ed Davey or me?

“The Tories will be in opposition but can’t be the opposition because they spend their whole life arguing with each other.”

He warned that unless Reform wins “many millions of votes” and a “beachhead in Parliament” there is the danger Labour will “govern completely unchecked”.

Mr Farage was speaking just five days after he stunned Westminster by announcing he would return as leader of Reform and stand to be MP for the Essex seaside town of Clacton.

Yesterday he revealed his decision was spurred by what he calls a crisis-hit and divided Conservative party that has “betrayed” Britain and Brexit.

He launched a blistering attack on Rishi Sunak and his “snobby” party – and warned of a revolution on the right of British politics. And Mr Farage, 60, said the door is open for surviving Tory MPs who want to join Reform after the election.

“This is the start of a six-year plan,” he added. “We’re saying the country is broken.

“Nothing actually works. We’re in debt up to our necks, our public services are failing in a way we’ve never seen in our life.

“We have to think differently about how we do everything.”

He claimed at least 50 of the Tory MPs elected in 2019 share his political instincts.

With the PM under fire for skipping a D-Day ceremony, Mr Farage warned the Tories could face electoral wipe-out.

He warned: “One more gaffe like that and they could all lose their seats.”

Reform UK is now the third most popular party in British politics, according to a WeThink poll. But it isn’t just the Tories he believes he is winning over.

He added: “Most of those people saying they are going to vote Labour are saying it because they don’t want to vote Conservative. I think we’ll dig into the Labour vote much more than they think.”

In a direct message to former Labour voters in Red Wall strongholds who voted Tory for the first time in 2019, he said: “You were betrayed by the Tories who pretended to take my agenda. Now you can vote for it.”

Despite the Tories’ dire standing in the polls, he said there are no discussions about a repeat of the deal at the last election which saw the Brexit Party stand down in Conservative-held seats.

A still-angry Mr Farage said his party “did them the biggest favour ever and didn’t even get a thank you”. He says the Conservatives went on to deliver a “complete betrayal of the way we thought Brexit was going to be”. Accusing the Tories of deep-rooted elitism, he said: “It’s still a very, very snobby party. Most of their dislike of me is pure snobbishness.”

He argues Labour and the Conservatives are “as guilty as each other at making the living standards of ordinary people decline”.

“Britain needs to be shaken up, governed differently with a different set of priorities and with different people,” he said. Terror will tear through Tory ranks if Reform UK overtakes them before polling day.

Nearly one in four people – 24 per cent – said they would vote for Mr Farage if he stood in their constituency, according to a WeThink poll. Six out of 10 said they would not but 16 per cent were undecided.

And if he does win a coveted seat on the green benches, he dismisses any suggestion that he might “go native” in Westminster, saying: “Did I go native in 20 years in Brussels? Did I change at all? Certainly not.”

Mr Farage also played down the chances of former Tory PM Boris Johnson joining the new movement he hopes to build.

He said that “when you’ve been at the top – the very top – it’s very tough to come back”. He added that Mr Johnson had “star appeal” but was “weak on policy”.

Mr Farage took part in the BBC’s election debate last week, joining six other political figures. The broadcast had an average of 3.2million viewers – 2.5million tuned into the equivalent debate in 2019.

The party leader had carved out a new career as a broadcaster before returning to frontline politics. He said: “I’m giving up a very comfortable life to do this but I think it’s got to be done.”