Nigel Farage "blindsided" senior figures of the Reform UK party with his "emergency election announcement", it has been claimed.
The Honorary President of the party posted on social media that he is set to make an intervention at 4pm today.
As speculation grows over whether Farage will now stand as a Reform MP in the upcoming July election, GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope said it is now "likely" that he could now confirm his standing.
Speaking on GB News, Christopher explained: "I think this is looking likely, he's going to say he wants to stand now. Senior figures in Reform UK are blindsided by this.
Nigel Farage is set to make an 'emergency election announcement' at 4pm today
PA
"They are scrambling to get back to London to understand what's going to be said by Nigel Farage at 4pm."
Christopher added that following his visit to Ashfield at the weekend on the Reform campaign trail, fans of Farage "mobbed him" and asked for "selfies and pictures".
He explained: "He knows jolly well the only way to take over a party is by being on the pitch, being an MP, he can't be an MP if he doesn't stand.
"All the odds are looking highly likely. He himself is not answering the phone to GB News. It just looks like that's where we're going."
The Honorary President of Reform UK has actively supported the party's election campaign so far
PA
Christopher also predicted that if Farage does decide to stand for Reform, it will "electrify" the current election race between Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak.
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Christopher told GB News: "If this happens, it will electrify what has been quite a soporific campaign.
"We had polling about Reform UK - we'll give them 12 per cent of the vote on July 4th and zero MPs. Now that might change if Farage enters a race. The election race could be about to get electric."
Host Andrew Pierce claimed that if Farage was to stand in the election and win, his chances of working with Donald Trump will be dashed as his time will be taken up by being an MP.
Andrew recalled: "He did say in that statement last week that he wanted to spend a lot of time in the United States with Donald Trump. He really believes in Donald Trump.​
Christopher Hope claims senior figures in Reform were 'blindsided' by the announcement
GB News
"If he gets elected to Parliament, he won't be doing much spending much time with Donald Trump, will he?"
Speaking previously on GB News, Farage has openly admitted that he has "regrets" about not standing in this year's election.
He said: "I was going to launch a six month campaign to fight a constituency and to campaign all over the country.
"I think Reform could have done astonishingly well. In six weeks, starting from scratch when you are me, when you know they will cheat against me as they did last time, and by the way, I’m not making that up because one of the agents got a nine month suspended prison sentence for breaking the law in the Conservative campaign against me.
“In those circumstances, I thought I could do much better for the party and the cause by touring the country. I couldn’t have done those things and fought a seat from scratch against an establishment here that won’t do quite the same as Trump, but will do almost anything to stop me."