Why has Nigel Farage decided to stand in the General Election?

Nigel Farage's shock return to frontline politics could make a dire situation for the Tories even worse, ITV News Correspondent Harry Horton reports

Last Friday Nigel Farage was campaigning in Boston and Skegness, the constituency where Reform UK’s (now former) leader Richard Tice is standing to become an MP.

In a walk around the town, Mr Farage was swarmed by members of the public cheering him on and asking for selfies. Mr Tice walked through largely unnoticed.

Mr Farage’s profile is far bigger than that of Mr Tice and of Reform UK. He had argued that by not standing and campaigning across the UK, he could do “more for the cause, more for the party” than by “going for one seat for the space of six weeks”.

By his own admission, this election has come too soon for Reform UK. Mr Farage admitted last week the party didn’t have the structure or money to fight this election in the way he’d like.

The party insists it will stand in 650 seats, but the few staff Reform UK has have been scrambling around the country, trying to actually get candidates to submit nomination forms before this week’s deadline.

After a week campaigning on the road, Mr Farage visited (in public, at least) just three constituencies: Dover & Deal, Boston & Skegness, and Ashfield.

He might have realised Reform’s campaign structure was even weaker than he thought.

I put it to Mr Farage last week that Reform had underperformed at by-elections, and Mr Tice wasn’t doing a great job as leader.

“Richard's a businessman,” was Farage’s reply. “He comes from outside the political class. He can stand up and speak to an audience without notes. I think he's become a very good TV performer.”

It doesn’t sound like the description of a man who could transform British politics.

Mr Farage also says the result of this election is a foregone conclusion. He says Labour will win.

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“I'm fighting as part of a six year project so that we can be the opposition party at the general election after this,” he told me last week.

His involvement in this election is all about shaping what happens to the right of British politics over the next five years.

And to influence that, he’s concluded he needs to be in the driving seat of his party and in parliament. Winning in Clacton-on-Sea will be no easy task for Mr Farage. But it is the only seat his former party Ukip ever managed to win at a general election.

Months before the election had been called, Reform’s candidate there had agreed to step aside should Mr Farage decide to stand for Parliament.

What happens in Clacton in the next four weeks could have a seismic impact on the future of British politics.

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