Nigel Farage won't stand for Parliament again as he 'fears eighth successive defeat at the polls'
26 December 2022, 16:05 | Updated: 26 December 2022, 16:07
Nigel Farage has said he won't run for a House of Commons seat at the next general election as he reportedly doesn't want to add to his seven defeats.
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The former Ukip, Brexit Party and Reform UK party leader was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for more than 20 years.
Farage, 58, has tried to become an MP on seven occasions between 1994 and 2015.
Most recently he was defeated in the 2015 general election for the seat of South Thanet, Kent by Conservative opponent Craig Mackinley.
The Brexit campaigner stepped down as Reform UK leader in March 2021, handing the mantle to former Brexit Party chairman Richard Tice.
During his most recent effort to enter Parliament, the Conservatives broke election spending rules.
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Farage told The Mirror: "The truth of it is anywhere I stood they would cheat. They would break the law, they just would.
“No one went to prison last time, the result stood, one person got a suspended sentence."
Although the former LBC host says he is open to returning to frontline politics, he added: "It is not top of my bucket list.
"I am quite happy with life as it is.
"I don’t dream at night of doing it, but if [the government] go on messing up the way they are, I just might at some point feel compelled to.”
Farage was defeated in the 1994 Eastleigh by-election before contesting Salisbury in 1997.
He then lost in Bexhill in Battle in 2001, South Thanet in 2005 and the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election in 2006.
While Ukip leader, Farage ran unsuccessfully in Buckingham in 2010 and finally in South Thanet five years later.
