Nigel Farage: eighth time lucky at UK election for 'Mr Brexit'?

Nigel Farage, seeking to become a British MP on Thursday at the eighth attempt, has risen from fringe Eurosceptic rabble-rouser to attention-grabbing figurehead who wants to "reshape" right-wing UK politics.

The 60-year-old former European parliamentarian (MEP) was a driving force behind Britain's 2016 Brexit vote, before forging a career as a presenter on the brash right-wing TV channel GB News.

A vocal Donald Trump advocate nicknamed "Mr Brexit" by the former US president, Farage is a divisive figure, loved and loathed in equal measure by supporters and detractors.

Seen as one of Britain's most effective communicators and campaigners, his decision to stand in a Eurosceptic seat in Clacton, southeast England, poses particular peril for the ruling Conservatives.

His candidacy has spurred a surge in support for his hard-right Reform UK party, which has campaigned on a pro-Brexit, anti-immigration, anti-net zero platform that threatens to draw right-wing support away from the Tories.

That could help the main Labour opposition, which polls show is on course to win by a landslide, putting Farage in a powerful position as remaining Tories grapple over the party's future direction.

Farage said his long-term aim is to stage a "takeover" of the Conservatives, likening his bid to similar efforts in Canada in the 1990s to the Conservative Party.

"I want to reshape the centre-right," he told the Sunday Times, adding that he did not have "any trust" in the Tories, who have been in power since 2010.

First, though, he has to finally become an MP after seven failed attempts.

- 'Everyman' -

Nigel Paul Farage, a beer-loving divorced father-of-four, is on paper an unlikely man of the people, appearing to embody much of what he rails against.

The son of a stockbroker, the privately educated former commodities trader was an MEP in Brussels for 20 years, yet railed against the European Union that paid his salary and regularly lambasts both "career politicians" and "the global elite".

Cheered by his supporters as a straight-talking, pint-swilling "everyman", opponents accuse him of being a hypocrite who plays to racists and far-right ideologues.

Reform has ditched scores of would-be candidates this year over offensive comments, according to a monitor, while Farage was criticised by opponents for saying during the campaign that the West provoked Russia's war in Ukraine.

Farage has an uncanny ability to capture media attention, capitalising on right-wing voters' frustrations over how Brexit has been handled.

In 1985 he had a cancerous testicle removed, and was hit by a car after a night out in 1987, suffering serious head and leg injuries.

Once recovered, he married his nurse, and the couple had two sons.

- Profile -

Following their divorce in 1997, Farage married second wife Kirsten Mehr, a German, with whom he has two daughters. They separated in 2017.

On general election day in May 2010, a light aircraft he was in crashed after a campaign banner got caught in a propeller.

He escaped relatively unscathed with just broken bones and a punctured lung.

Farage's political ascent began in 1993 when Britain, under Conservative prime minister John Major, joined in a process of deeper European integration.

He quit the Tories in disgust to co-found the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) and six years later was elected to the European Parliament aged 35.

Farage had two stints leading UKIP, pulling off an unprecedented win in the 2014 European Parliament elections, as Euroscepticism, once a fringe Tory view, became more mainstream.

The 2014 results heaped pressure on then-prime minister David Cameron to call the EU membership referendum that would eventually seal his demise.

Farage was kept out of the official "Leave" campaign because of fears his brand was too divisive.

But he maintained a high profile, hammering away at the immigration issue -- and sparking claims of racism with a poster of refugees under the slogan "breaking point".

In the afterglow of victory, Farage stepped down as UKIP leader, claiming his mission was complete.

But he soon returned to frontline politics, founding the Brexit Party in response to the political paralysis around leaving the EU and then helping rebrand it as Reform following the UK's eventual withdrawal in 2020.

jj-pdh/phz/bc