Reform Honorary President Nigel Farage admits he has “absolutely huge regrets” over his decision not to stand as an MP.
The former UKIP leader announced last week that he will not be standing, saying it is “not the right time” for him to be doing so.
Farage later revealed that he had planned to launch a campaign but Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a snap General Election caught him cold.
He told GB News that were he to have stood, Reform likely would have “performed astonishingly” given the reaction from his ardent supporters.
“I have absolutely huge regrets”, said Nigel Farage.
“Yesterday, I was going to launch a six month campaign to fight a constituency and to campaign all over the country.
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“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 will be in Ashfield tomorrow with Lee [Anderson] and I will be going up with Richard Tice today in Boston and Skegness.
“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.”
Farage’s has been a vocal voice throughout the campaign so far despite his decision not to stand.
He has taken shots from the sidelines at the two vying for the keys for Number 10, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.
He even challenged the incumbent Prime Minister to debate immigration, an offer Tory sources have played down.
Starmer also appeared to back out of the challenge, telling reporters earlier this week: “I’ve got debates with the Prime Minister coming up, which I'm very happy to engage in, but I'm on the road campaigning.
"The people I most want to talk to directly to voters.
"That's why when we do events, we usually get quite a lot of people together like this and have an open Q&A, so that anybody can ask me any question they like or put a proposition on the table."
