Electoral history of Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage is a British MP for Clacton and former MEP for South East England who has stood as a candidate representing eurosceptic parties UK Independence Party (UKIP) and Reform UK[a] since 1994. He was a Member of the European Parliament representing South East England from the 1999 election until the British withdrawal from the European Union in 2020, winning re-election four times. Farage has stood for election to the House of Commons eight times, in six general elections and two by-elections, losing in every attempt until 2024 in Clacton. He was also a proponent of the UK leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, in which the electorate voted to do so by 52% to 48%.[1]

Farage was voted UKIP leader in the September 2006 leadership election, and led them in the 2009 European Parliament election in which his party won the second-highest number of votes and seats after the Conservative Party.[2] He resigned as leader later that year in order to concentrate on the 2010 general election. In late 2010, he was voted leader for a second time after the resignation of Lord Pearson of Rannoch.[3] Farage led UKIP in the 2014 European Parliament election, in which his party won the most votes and seats; this was the first time since the December 1910 general election that Labour or the Conservatives did not get the most seats in a British nationwide election.[4] He resigned as UKIP leader after the 2016 referendum.[5]

The first election to the House of Commons that Farage contested was the 1994 Eastleigh by-election.[6] After standing unsuccessfully for election in the next three general elections, all in a different constituency, he stood in the 2006 Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, in which he finished third with 8.1% of the vote. In the 2010 general election, Farage stood against the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, in the constituency of Buckingham, again finishing third with 17.4% of the vote. Five years later, he stood in the general election in the constituency of South Thanet, finishing second to the Conservative Craig Mackinlay, with 32.4% of the vote. He did not stand as a candidate for election in the 2019 general election. In 2024, Farage became leader of Reform UK once more, ahead of the that year's general election, and won election for Parliament in Clacton.


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  1. ^ Bennett, Asa (24 June 2016). "Nigel Farage has earned his place in history as the man who led Britain out of the EU". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  2. ^ Whitehead, Tom (8 June 2009). "European elections 2009: Ukip claims political breakthrough". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  3. ^ Sparrow, Andrew (5 November 2010). "Nigel Farage returns as Ukip leader". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  4. ^ Wintour, Patrick; Watt, Nicholas (26 May 2014). "Ukip wins European elections with ease to set off political earthquake". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  5. ^ "UKIP leader Nigel Farage stands down". BBC News. 4 July 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  6. ^ Farage, Nigel (5 February 2013). "Nigel Farage: Why I will not fight the Eastleigh by-election". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 31 May 2016.

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