UK's Farage launches election campaign for pro-Brexit seat

Arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage threw himself into the political fray again on Tuesday, as he launched his election campaign on a chilly overcast day in the English seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea.

Some in the crowds shouted: "We love you!" while others called out: "Main man!" and "Go on, Nigel!" between spontaneous rounds of applause.

But by the end of his visit, not everyone had been won over. As he left a pub, someone threw what appeared to be a banana milkshake over his smart navy blue suit and purple tie.

Farage, 60, had up until then got largely a hero's welcome in the Brexit stronghold, which he hopes to represent in the UK parliament for the anti-immigration Reform UK party.

As he strode towards the town's pier, a large crowd including dog walkers, young mothers with children and people on mobility scooters, trailed behind, eager to hear what he had to say.

Farage was in full campaign mode, a day after he dealt a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his beleaguered Conservative party by announcing he will stand in the July 4 election.

"Nothing works any more, does it?" Farage told the gathering of at least 500 people to murmurs of approval, adding that he wanted people to feel free to be "proud to be British".

"What we need to do is reactivate a people's army against the establishment," he added, casting himself once again as the outlier and the man to shake up British politics, particularly on immigration.

- Odds on -

For window cleaner Michael Cashman, 49, Farage's message fell on fertile ground. "I want the mainstream parties to actually stand up and listen to the British people," he told AFP.

The father-of-two said he was worried about how his sons would make a life for themselves in the future. And while he said he had nothing against immigrants, he believes numbers had to be reduced.

"If you come here as a legal migrant, you're more than welcome," he said, but "illegal migration" had to be "brought down".

The Clacton constituency, currently held by the Conservatives, was the first to elect a lawmaker for Farage's former political vehicle, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), in 2014.

If UKIP's once fringe anti-EU stance influenced mainstream Tory policy over the years, Reform UK's very existence -- with Farage at the helm -- threatens to split the right-wing vote.

Alexandra Burton, 37, said she was very much a floating voter but quite liked what she had heard. "I was going to vote Labour but now I don't know. I might vote Reform," she said.

The former credit-control worker said not being able to access a dentist on the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) or services for one of her children who had special needs were major election issues for her.

Another Clacton resident, Joe Clark, said Farage's arrival "changes everything". The 55-year-old engineering consultant usually votes Conservative.

But Farage would be a "great leader" for both Clacton and the wider country, he said, even predicting him an overall election win in 2029.

- Future -

At the last general election in 2019, which Boris Johnson's Conservatives won by a landslide, Reform's forerunner the Brexit Party agreed not to field candidates in Conservative-held seats.

Farage, who set up both, told the BBC on Tuesday there were "no circumstances whatsoever" in which Reform UK would stand aside this time round.

He said he felt betrayed by the Conservatives and claimed millions of others felt the same way.

"I stood aside in over 300 seats for Boris Johnson and we were told we would get control of our borders, we were told the immigration numbers would come down. They have exploded," he added.

Farage, who has tried -- and failed -- seven times previously to become a British MP, said Keir Starmer's Labour was certain to win the election.

"The question is, who is going to be the voice of opposition?" he asked, highlighting what looks sure to be an ideological fight for the future of the Conservatives after the election.

Window cleaner Cashman said people like him who usually voted Conservative were probably going to prove fatal to Sunak's hopes of hanging on to power.

"I know that voting for Reform is obviously stealing votes from the Conservatives and that we are probably going to hand it to Labour," he said.

"But if I don't go and vote for change and try something different... then it just stays the same."

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