‘WILL be the challenger to Labour!’ Nigel Farage hails Reform success as he compares party to UKIP: ‘This is the difference’

Despite its relative success, UKIP failed to translate votes to seats at the general election despite winning millions of votes.

Speaking to Tom Harwood, Farage outlined why he feels Reform UK could be set for a different destiny.

“In 2015, the general election which I led UKIP into, the problem I faced was the perception that we were splitting the Conservative vote”, he said.

“We still got four million votes. Because of that, a couple of million people who might have voted for us didn’t, they might have feared a Labour-SNP coalition.

“Here is the difference. When voters go to the polls this year, the argument that a vote for Reform is a wasted vote has almost disappeared overnight in the Midlands, the North and I think South Wales is in that category.

“The Tories cannot win the election.

“The Tory press cannot squeeze the Reform vote because they are going to lose anyway.

“Reform will be the challenger to the Labour Party. Labour are a long way ahead at the moment.

“Reform will need almost the whole Conservative vote with it to have a chance of winning those seats.

“The way politics is changing so quickly, I wouldn’t rule it out.”

A defiant Richard Tice declared last night that his party are now the “real” opposition as he discussed the Blackpool by-election result with Tom Harwood.

His party came third, just 117 votes behind the Conservatives.

Ahead of the result announcement, he said: "It'll be our best by-election by a considerable margin and this just reinforces that frankly we're on the way up, the Tories are on the way down."

He added: "We are fast becoming the real opposition - in red wall seats, in the north of England and, indeed, I think in the Midlands - to the Labour Party."