Why Nigel Farage bottled it — again

LONDON — Nigel Farage has failed to win election to the U.K. parliament on seven separate occasions. This time, he can’t even bring himself to try. 

The man who successfully led Britain out of Europe ruled himself out of the running for the U.K. general election on Thursday, less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak surprised the nation by announcing a snap summer poll. 

Farage, the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader, is now honorary president of start-up party Reform UK, which has eaten into Tory poll ratings with its right-wing, anti-immigration agenda.

Conservatives MPs, who feared a Farage comeback would send Reform’s poll ratings stratospheric, can barely contain their glee.

Two Tories in seats under pressure from Reform described his abnegation as “huge” news in an election where the Conservatives need all the help they can get. One of the MPs noted that Farage’s absence made the Reform vote “a lot more squeezable” than otherwise.

Others simply gloated as Farage said he would now focus on U.S. politics. “Good riddance,” tweeted Tory peer and former minister James Bethell.

Farage is widely seen as one of the most consequential politicians of his generation, serving as a UKIP MEP for decades and proving a key figure in the long Euroskeptic battle to secure and then win a Brexit referendum.

But he has been fighting since the 1990s to secure a seat in the British parliament, with voters rejecting him each and every time. 

In his first five attempts, Farage failed to secure even 10 percent of the vote. In 2010 he was seriously injured during an airplane stunt as he campaigned for the seat of former House of Commons Speaker John Bercow. 

Farage earned his best result in 2015, narrowly finishing second to his Tory opponent in the pro-Brexit seat of South Thanet, Kent. He didn’t bother to stand in either of the two general elections that followed the Brexit referendum. 

Chatter over his potential role in the 2024 election has been rife for weeks, however, with Farage — fresh from an appearance on reality TV show “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” — confirming he was mulling a run as Reform’s figurehead. Reform has been eating away at the right-wing Tory vote for months, but so far has made no significant electoral gains.

NigelFarage earned his best result in 2015, narrowly finishing second to his Tory opponent in the pro-Brexit seat of South Thanet, Kent. | Daniel Leal/Getty Images

After weeks of stalling Farage finally quashed the speculation Thursday, saying he had thought “long and hard” about whether to stand, but ultimately decided against it.

Instead, he said, he preferred to focus on the “huge global significance” of the U.S. presidential election, where he has been campaigning for his friend Donald Trump. 

The Telegraph reported that Farage had been preparing to announce his candidacy, but ditched the idea when Sunak called an early election.

In an interview with POLITICO’s Westminster Insider podcast in January, Farage said it would be “very tough” to combine a Westminster campaign with his other commitments, but that he still felt a sense of “ownership” of Reform and would make clear his support for them. 

Reform UK Leader Tice told a press conference that Farage would be “helping out significantly in campaigning to drive home the message of Reform UK and how we can save Britain.”

The Reform leader separately denied in comments to POLITICO’s Westminster Insider that Farage simply feared rejection. 

Nigel Faragesaid said he preferred to focus on the “huge global significance” of the U.S. presidential election, where he has been campaigning for his friend Donald Trump. | Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

Standing again “involves threats to his life,” Tice said. “It involves a complete change in his whole existence … He’s got opportunities in America. And no one knows more than him that being involved at the front line of British politics is pretty brutal stuff.”  

Farage later confirmed he was quitting his highly-paid presenting job with broadcaster GB News to concentrate on campaigning.

James Frayne, director of polling consultancy Public and a former Conservative adviser, said “the great danger” Farage had posed to the Conservatives was that he would have “massively raised [Reform’s] profile.”

His not standing “doesn’t change the fundamentals of this election — but it makes it more likely that the Tories will cling on to a bunch of marginals,” Frayne added.

“It’s a huge relief for Rishi Sunak.”

Aggie Chambre and Noah Keate contributed reporting.