Could Nigel Farage come back to haunt British politics once again?

Tory red-wall MPs might be feeling nervous about their prospects at the next general election, writes Sean O'Grady. Does that leave room for another Farage comeback?

Nigel Farage is said to have conversations with some Tory red-wall MPs (AFP/Getty)

Nigel Farage, former leader of Ukip, former leader of the Brexit Party and presently playing an angry pub bore on GB News, is apparently seeking to stir British politics up again. Reports vary, but it seems that there has been contact with a group of disenchanted Conservative MPs in red-wall seats potentially for help and spiritual guidance, rather in the way The Beatles did with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi back in the psychedelic Sixties. All sorts of options were explored. None of them was promising for the Sunak administration’s chances of getting re-elected.

A revived Reform UK, successor to Ukip and the Brexit Party (albeit a rump Ukip soldiers on) has declared that it will field parliamentary candidates in every seat in England, Wales and Scotland. The leader is the lacklustre Richard Tice, an old colleague of Farage, who always gives the impression that he’s just keeping the seat warm until Farage returns.

Reform claims to have attracted Tory members unhappy with their party’s net zero and high tax ways, and believes it can similarly attract Tory voters and, maybe, win seats. It’s targeted 11 or so for the next election, five Conservative seats, six Labour-held ones in the Leave-inclined North, North East and Midlands. They are: Barnsley East, Hartlepool, Doncaster North, Wentworth & Deane, Don Valley, Rother Valley, Bolsover, Rotherham, Makerfield, Stoke-on-Trent North, and Mansfield. All would most likely return to Labour on current polling.