Former conservative politician Nigel Farage has hinted once more at a potential return to front-line politics, insisting there is a considerable public appetite for change. He is now calling for electoral reform from the longstanding First Past the Post (FPTP) system used in U.K. general elections.
Speaking to Patrick Christys on GB News, the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader revealed he had explored the option of returning to politics ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections, saying he had undertaken polling recently that showed he could obtain 4 million votes “tomorrow.”
“That’s before any campaign or announcement that I am interested in doing it again. We can get that up to 5 million, we can get that up to 17/18 percent of the national vote.
“I believe that even under First Past the Post (FPTP), that is achievable,” Farage added.
Such a vote share would prove to be decisive in many European countries that operate under a different electoral system to the U.K., typically proportional representation (PR) of some kind. However, as Farage knows all too well from his time as UKIP leader, such a result does not guarantee electoral success in Britain.
In the 2015 general election, Farage’s UKIP secured 3.9 million votes across the country yet ended up with just one parliamentary seat of the 650 available. In contrast, the Scottish National Party (SNP) received 1.45 million votes and won 56 seats, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland won eight seats with just 184,000 votes.
With this in mind, Farage, who now works as a presenter for broadcaster GB News, explained he is hesitant whether a full-on election campaign with a party to challenge the ruling Conservatives and opposing Labour Party will bring the change the country needs.
“What is it going to get me? Am I going to bang my head against a brick wall?” he asked.
“I won the 2014 European elections, the 2019 European elections under PR. If we had PR and a genuinely center-right party that is focused around actually putting British people first, genuine border controls, delivering on Brexit and what we thought was achievable in terms of regulations and borders, then I think a party like that would get 25 percent of the vote and would hold the balance of power in Westminster,” he added.
The conservative commentator said he was in no rush to return to front-line politics, having stepped down from his fledgling Reform Party in March 2021.
“I don’t need to get back into politics, I’m perfectly happy with life as it is, but there is a growing public appetite for change.
“Over half the population think FPTP is out of date. The Daily Mail will say it delivers strong and stable government. Well, think about the last 13 years. Five years of it under this system was a coalition with the Lib Dems, and the last eight years have been utter chaos.
“If this is a strong and stable government under FPTP, I’d rather try something different,” he concluded.
