Reform UK leader Nigel Farage after speaking with media outside Havering Town Hall in Romford on May 8.
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Once Ridiculed, Farage Is Closing In On His Quest to Rule the UK
The anti-establishment Reform leader scored big gains across England, Scotland and Wales last week. Now he needs to convert those local wins into national gravitas.
Nigel Farage descended from a helicopter as the sun was setting over Chelmsford City Racecourse in Essex. Wearing a blue suit, a multi-colored tie and a patriotic Union Jack pin, he was getting ready to raise a toast — champagne in hand.
The southeastern county of England had just fallen to Reform UK, one of a host of council areas to switch to his party in the local election results announced earlier in the day. “There’ll be music, there’ll be drinking,” Farage promised from the lectern, as he ran through all the seats that Reform had flipped while taking swipes at his opponents. “We are the fun party.”