Reform UK makes gains as Nigel Farage wins Clacton in first general election triumph
ITV News Political Correspondent Harry Horton is in Clacton as Nigel Farage arrives for the count on what the Reform UK leader described as a "huge" night for the party.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has won a seat in the House of Commons for the first time, declaring “something very fundamental” was happening as his party made gains across the country.
Addressing the audience in the counting hall in Clacton, Essex, Farage said he was looking to fill a “massive gap on the centre-right of British politics”, adding he is “targeting” Labour supporters.
Earlier in the evening, Lee Anderson has become the first elected Reform UK MP, as the exit poll suggested the party is set to win 13 seats. Anderson defected to Reform UK from the Conservatives in March after he lost the whip.
Speaking after his victory in Clacton, Farage said: “It’s not just disappointment with the Conservative party, there is a massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
“But it’s not just what we do in Parliament as a national party that matters, it’s what we do out round the country.
“Getting 5,000 people in that room in Birmingham last week, the energy, the optimism, the enthusiasm, the belief that Westminster is just completely out of touch with ordinary people, says to me that my plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years, and hopefully, it will be big enough to challenge the general election properly in 2029.”
On a video posted to X, Farage declared the predicted results for his party as "huge".
“It’s midnight, there are two results in from the north east of England that put Reform on 30% of the vote, that is way more than any possible prediction or projection. It is almost unbelievable," he said.
“And what does it mean? It means we’re going to win seats, many many seats I think right now across the country.”
He added: “This is going to be six million votes plus. This folks is huge.”
The clip was captioned: “The revolt against the establishment is under way.”
Farage had earlier declined to say what number of MPs the party would classify as a win, but 13 elected representatives is higher than predictions by most polls.
The leader has tried and failed to get elected to Parliament seven times in the past.
The exit poll by Ipsos UK for Sky News, the BBC and ITV News, said Reform UK have a likelihood of 99%-plus that Farage will win the seat in Clacton, Essex.
The party has also seen an early boost as they polled ahead of the Conservatives in Houghton and Sunderland South, pushing the Tories into third place.
Reform UK candidate Sam Woods-Brass received 11,668 votes to Conservative candidate Chris Burnicle’s 5,514.
Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson won the constituency with 18,837 votes, achieving just over 47% of the vote share and a majority of 7,169.
ITV News Political Correspondent Harry Horton, who has been following the Reform campaign for the last six weeks, said Farage had "become increasingly confident about his own chances of getting elected and for a handful of Reform candidates to join him in the House of Commons".
Reform came in second place in Blyth and Ashington with 10,857 votes, as Labour secured 20,030 votes and the Tories came third with 6,121 votes.
It has been said that Reform’s wide but thin support would not facilitate their success in a first-past-the-post system and Mr Farage has been vocal about the need for changes to the electoral system.
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