Nigel Farage elected to Westminster at eighth attempt as he wins Clacton seat

Nigel Farage has been elected to the House of Commons at the eighth time of asking after taking victory in Clacton.

The Reform leader had initially announced he would not be standing in the general election, but reversed his decision in June as he also took on the role as his party's leader.

Conservative candidate Giles Watling was defending a huge majority of over 20,000, having taken 72.3% of the vote at the 2019 election, but could not hold off Mr Farage.

The former UKIP leader took  21,225 votes to win by 8,405.

Mr Farage has attempted to win election to the House of Commons on seven previous occasions but lost each time.

In 1994 he took just 952 votes in Eastleigh, narrowly ahead of the Monster Raving Loony Party, and he managed only 5.7% in Salisbury at the 1997 general election.

Mr Farage then lost in Bexhill and Battle in 2001, South Thanet in 2005, Bromley and Chislehurst in a 2006 by-election, Buckingham in 2010 and narrowly in South Thanet in 2015 when he finished within 3,000 votes of Conservative Craig Mackinlay.

Following his election, he said: "This is just the first step, I set out with a goal to win millions of votes, to get a bridgehead in Parliament and that’s what we’ve done so I’m very pleased.”

Asked where the Reform movement goes from here, he said: “Forwards rapidly, very rapidly. I mean, look, I’ve got some things to do, I’ve got to professionalise it, I’ve got to democratise it, I’ve got to get rid of a few idiots that found it too easy to get on board. They will all go, they will all go, this will be a non-racist, non-sectarian party. Absolutely and I give my word on that.”

On the Conservative Party, Mr Farage added: “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.”