Nigel Farage has decided he will not try to win over any current or former Tory MPs and has ditched his plans to take over the Conservative Party.
In an interview with The Independent, the leader of Reform UK and newly elected MP for Clacton, said he already has a plan to win the next general election in 2029.
He believes "there is no love" for Sir Keir Starmer's new Labour government but has admitted his own ambitions for the election were thwarted by the number of racist remarks from his party's candidates.
Instead, he believes the Tories have left "a huge vacuum" that Reform can fill as they begin trying to rebuild from the wreckage and decide who will replace Rishi Sunak over the next few months.
Mr Farage was speaking as he joined fans of East Thurrock Community Football Club with James McMurdock, who was the fifth Reform MP to be confirmed, for a celebratory drink in a constituency that his party has snatched from the Tories.
Even as he spoke to The Independent, the first political defector came up to join his party at the bar at the football club. Alex Anderson, an independent councillor in Thurrock, had been a Tory until March and said: "I am fed up of their lies."
Mr Farage revealed that since the election more than one new member a minute had joined Reform with the number standing at 2,089 new members at the time of speaking to him.
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