Nigel Farage has finally broken his silence and revealed his whereabouts after two days of speculation about why he has not been seen in public. The Reform UK leader has kept involved in the key debates this week, especially over Sir Keir Starmer’s Brexit “surrender” to the EU.
However, he was not in Parliament on Tuesday for the major debate about the renegotiated settlement with Brussels. Senior Tories were also mystified that he was not in the media when the deal was announced on Monday, allowing their leader, Kemi Badenoch, to steal the spotlight instead. Mr Farage has now finally put to bed rumours about his location.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Clacton MP revealed he was taking his first holiday in three years, but will be back on the campaign trail soon.
Mr Farage said: “There seems to be great consternation in the press that they have not seen me for 48 hours. Well, they will have to wait some time.
“After months of touring the UK in the run-up to our hugely successful local election campaign, I will resume travelling the country next week as Reform moves to the next stage.
“Meanwhile, I am having my first overseas break for three years, the jungle excepted. Well, I say break … plenty of articles and fundraising calls!”
Mr Farage’s long-overdue holiday also coincided with a new bombshell poll on Tuesday that put Reform UK on 29%, with the Tories dropping to fourth place.
According to YouGov, Mr Farage has now secured a seven-point lead over Labour, which is on 22%, while the Lib Dems have leapt into third place on 17%.
Under Mrs Badenoch, who continues to battle rumours that she may be ousted, the Tories are now polling at just 16%.
In a post on X on Tuesday after the poll results were published, Mr Farage had just 12 words for Mrs Badenoch and the Conservatives.
The Reform leader said: “The Tories are now fourth place in the polls and sinking fast.”
According to Election Maps UK, if a general election produced the results contained in the poll from Tuesday morning, Reform would be the largest party on 309 seats, 17 seats short of an overall majority.
However, responding to Mr Farage’s holiday announcement, a Tory party spokesman said: “On the day that the Labour Government surrenders our national interest to the EU and betrays our fishermen, the part-time leader of Reform UK is sunning himself in Europe while Parliament is sitting. He clearly doesn’t have the stamina to stand up to Starmer.
“Only the Conservatives are providing proper opposition to this disastrous Labour Government.”
Meanwhile, according to the poll, Labour would lose 273 seats – falling to just 138 MPs in the House of Commons.
The Tories, though, would be in an even worse position, projected to fall behind the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party in terms of seat numbers.
Mrs Badenoch’s party would be on course to win just 21 seats based on the poll’s vote share calculations, a further loss of 100 seats from last year’s record-breaking defeat under Rishi Sunak.
Pollster Luke Tryl said the country’s political landscape had been upended and that the Conservatives risked “going the way of the republicans in France. He said they “need a strategy” to claim back their loss in support.