It’s eighth time lucky for Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage has become an MP on his eighth attempt, declaring that the election result marks the “beginning of the end” of the Tories.

His party Reform UK has so far won four seats in the election, giving it the “bridgehead” in parliament that he was seeking as he tries to establish it as a force to rival the Tories.

Mr Farage declared that “the revolt against the establishment is under way” after he secured the Clacton-on-Sea seat in Essex.

Speaking after being elected to the Essex seat, he said: “They’ve been around for 190 years. They’ve been amazingly resilient. But this could be, I think this is the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party”.

Mr Farage secured the biggest single seat swing in modern election history, 45.1 percentage points, with his victory in Clacton in Essex.

‌He came away with 46.2 per cent of the vote, with no candidate from the Brexit Party having stood there in 2019.

‌Previously, the seat was held by Conservative Giles Watling, who had a 24,702 majority with 72 per cent of the vote share. This fell to 27.9 per cent last night.

‌Mr Farage won the seat with 21,225 votes, a majority of 8,405.

This election represents a major electoral breakthrough for the Right-wing party, marking its first real success in terms of seat gains.

Donald Trump congratulated Mr Farage on his election to parliament. The former US president, who has long supported Mr Farage’s political career, posted about the victory on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big win of a parliament seat amid Reform UK election success,” he said. “Nigel is a man who truly loves his country.”

Reform now holds four seats, as chairman Richard Tice secured Boston and Skegness, Rupert Lowe won Great Yarmouth and Lee Anderson became the party’s first-ever MP when he claimed the seat of Ashfield.

The exit poll had predicted that Reform would return 13 MPs, making it the most significant new political party in recent times.

However, they missed out on Barnsley North with Labour’s Dan Jarvis comfortably holding the seat by 8,000 votes.

It was the first major miss of the exit poll for the night, which predicted that Reform candidate Robert Lomas would scoop the seat.

However, Reform made huge inroads in Sunderland South, the first constituency of the night to declare, leapfrogging the Tories to finish in second place.

Labour held on to the seat, which is represented by Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, with a majority of 7,100. But the performance of Reform, which won 11,668 votes to Labour’s 18,847, suggested it was on course for a strong showing nationwide.

Mr Farage’s party also came runner-up in the second seat to declare, Blyth and Ashington, once again beating the Tories, who came third.

Labour comfortably held the seat with 20,030 votes but Reform came second on 10,857, ahead of the Conservatives on 6,121. Both results indicated that Reform had won over large numbers of former Tory voters who had become disaffected with the party under Rishi Sunak.

Reform was also runner-up to Labour in five other north-east seats that declared early. They were Sunderland Central, Washington and Gateshead South, Gateshead Central and Whickham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central and West, and Cramlington.

But it was a different picture in the South where the party came third behind the Tories in Swindon South, the former seat of Sir Robert Buckland, which was won by Labour.

The projected result suggests that Reform was successful in poaching many voters who backed the Tories last time out under Boris Johnson.

In a video released on social media, Mr Farage described his party’s early results as “almost unbelievable” and predicted it would win more than six million votes. The Reform leader said it showed that “the revolt against the establishment is under way”.

“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.”

Mr Farage was the leader of the UK Independence Party in 2015 when it won just a single seat, Clacton, despite securing 12.6 per cent of the national vote.

He was also in charge of the Brexit Party four years ago when it ended the 2019 election seatless after striking a pact with the Tories to ensure that Boris Johnson beat Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Tice began Reform’s election campaign, announcing eye-catching policies including reducing net migration to zero and big cuts to income, corporation and inheritance tax. At that point, the party was averaging around 10 per cent in the polls, meaning it was already on course to make a sizeable dent in Tory support.

The turning point came when Mr Farage announced he was taking over the leadership and running as an MP. Just 10 days after he returned to the fray, the party overtook the Tories in the opinion polls for the first time.

Mr Farage’s return was seen as a ­disaster by Tories, all but ending the party’s hopes of narrowing the gap with Labour.

Mr Tice won Boston and Skegness with 15,520 votes, beating Conservative Matt Warman on 13,510. His victory was greeted with a raucous cheer from his supporters at the count.

When Mr Warman’s losing vote was declared one Conservative supporter shouted: “Bring back Boris.”

Mr Tice said his party’s success was proving “really quite extraordinary”.

In his acceptance speech after securing a 2,010 majority, Mr Tice said “millions and millions” of people were now voting for Reform.

He added: “It is, as Nigel said, a people’s revolt under way. It’s just the beginning. We are just warming up. This great country of ours can do much better.”

Mr Warman, whose 2019 majority of 25,000 for the Lincolnshire seat was obliterated, wished his successor well.