Farage: I want to challenge to be PM in 2029

Nigel Farage has said he plans to challenge to be prime minister in 2029.

The Reform UK leader said he intended to use the general election as a springboard to challenge for victory in five years.

Mr Farage said he hoped the July 4 election would result in Reform having a “bridgehead” in the Commons, and he would use that to build a “big national campaigning movement around the country over the course of the next five years for genuine change”.

Asked whether it was his intention to vie to be prime minister at the next election, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Yes, absolutely.”

His comments as he prepared to unveil Reform’s manifesto in Wales on Monday. He claimed the Tories were “split down the middle” and he wanted his party to become the “proper voice of opposition”.

Mr Farage said his return to the political front line would last for at least five years and he was making a “minimum five-year commitment of my life to build this political movement to get real change”, adding: “We know what we believe in.”

He said: “We have almost got a presidential-style now. People are voting for or against Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Ed Davey or me. They are the names that are really on the ballot paper.”

He claimed there would be no change on immigration under a Labour government, saying: “Labour’s six-point manifesto plan doesn’t even mention immigration, so don’t expect, folks, any change there at all.”

Asked about Labour’s plans to seek closer trade ties with the EU, Mr Farage told the BBC: “I think we’re perfectly capable of regulating and running our own industries.”

Mr Farage was asked on Monday whether he could give voters an assurance that he had got rid of all of Reform’s “unpleasant” candidates after one resigned after historic comments emerged in which he urged people to vote for the BNP.

He added that Reform had paid for its candidates to be professionally vetted but the work “wasn’t done”, saying: “We did put in place with quite a well-known political figure who runs a professional vetting company, we put in place something, we spent a great deal of money on getting that vetting done. It wasn’t done.

“I will talk more about that over the next couple of days.”

Mr Farage said the short notice nature of the election meant that “every party is having problems with candidates”.