Nigel Farage to make ‘emergency general election announcement' later today
3 June 2024, 10:41 | Updated: 3 June 2024, 10:50
Nigel Farage has announced he will be making an ‘emergency’ announcement about the general election.
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What he plans to say is unclear at the moment but he has recently revealed his aim of ‘taking over’ the Tory party after the election.
Mr Farage said the announcement will come at 4pm today in a message on social media to his supporters.
He has already ruled himself out of standing as a candidate in the general election because of the "very short notice".
However two days ago Mr Farage hinted he may be considering standing as an MP, saying he would be an “idiot” not to consider a change of heart.
At an event in Nottinghamshire on Saturday, Mr Farage says he has had "deep regrets" about choosing not to stand. He told Nottinghamshire Live that “any man that rules out anything for the future is an idiot."
Last month he was asked why he would not stand as an MP candidate for Reform UK and said: “I think I'm more use to Reform UK nationally and more use, frankly, to the national debate being out and about in the country."
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I will be making an Emergency General Election announcement at 4pm today.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 3, 2024
Yesterday, Mr Farage told The Sunday Times: “Why do you think I called it Reform? Because of what happened in Canada – the 1992-93 precedent in Canada, where Reform comes from the outside, because the Canadian Conservatives had become social democrats like our mob here.
“It took them time, it took them two elections, they became the biggest party on the centre-Right. They then absorbed what was left of the Conservative Party into them and rebranded.”
Asked if this mean he wanted to see Reform UK and the Tories ‘merge,’ he replied: “More like a takeover, dear boy.”
Mr Farage said of the Conservatives: “I certainly don’t have any trust for them or any love for them,” adding: “I want to reshape the centre-Right, whatever that means.”
He is angry at the government’s handling of the migrant crisis. On a visit to Dover last month he said “lives could be saved if we turn boats around in the Channel because ultimately the boats will stop coming.”
The deadline for submitting nominations for candidates is 7 June.
