Nigel Farage urged to ‘get back in ring and start fighting’ for Reform as election looms

Nigel Farage has been urged to “get back in the ring” on behalf of Reform UK, with a general election almost certain to be called this year.

Rupert Lowe, Reform’s business spokesman, made his remarks at the end of a week which saw the party stage a high-profile press conference to outline its strategy for the year.

Despite speculation that he would attend, Mr Farage himself was conspicuous by his absence.

Mr Lowe, a former Brexit Party MEP, as well as the former chairman of Southampton FC, did not specifically call for Mr Farage to stand for Parliament for what would be the eighth occasion.

However, he told Express.co.uk: “I would like to see him get back into the ring.

“We’ve got clearly an election coming up this year. I personally have always thought it would be October.

“Therefore if you’re going to get into the ring, you’ve got to warm up enough to win the fight.”

Mr Lowe added: “Ultimately, he’s a better political judge than probably I am.

“But sooner or later, I think if he’s going to enter the ring, he needs to hop in there, put the gloves on and start and start fighting.

“He shares the sentiments and the frustrations which I have, and so I think he is a very good figurehead and it would be very, very worrying for the Tories and Labour – we’ve got to turn the howitzers on Starmer, because Starmer is going to do worse than the Tories.

“But the Tories with an 80-seat majority have done the square root of nothing.

“They’ve actually taken us back so we’re paying far more tax than we should, there’s far more statism than there should be.

“They’ve lost their way and they’re no longer believers in enterprise and personal self-determination.

“You can’t reward failure, which is what the Tories have had, they’ve had a long time playing with the train set now and they’ve clearly failed, so you can’t reward them with further incumbency.

“Equally, you can’t really vote for Labour because they’re going to destroy the economy to an even greater extent.

“So what’s the only option? The only option is to vote for real people who represent the electorate people like me, Ben Habib, Richard Tice, and Ann Widdecombe, people who are trying to give the British people an option to radically change what we’ve got in the way in which we’re led.”

Former Brexit Party MEP Mr Farage, who recently came third in I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here…, has not confirmed whether he is planning to return to frontline politics, although speaking about Reform UK’s press conference he said: “Never say never. I’m honorary president. It was Richard’s show today.”

Speaking at Wednesday’s event, Reform UK leader Mr Tice said he was “confident” Mr Farage had a role to play.

He also ruled out entering into any electoral pacts with the Conservative Party with Rishi Sunak under fresh pressure from political opponents to call a general election.

Mr Tice said he could be “absolutely categoric” there will be no deals despite the alleged pleading of some Conservatives.

He told reporters said the country wants to go to the polls “sooner rather than later” as voters want to “punish the Tories for breaking Britain”.

He added: “The truth is the Tories are terrified.”

Speaking in Mansfield yesterday, Prime Minister Mr Sunak, who suggested he would call an election in the second half of the year, said: “A vote for anybody who’s not a Conservative candidate, a Conservative MP, is a vote for Keir Starmer in power.

“There’s only going to be two options for Prime Minister after the next election, it’s either going to be me or Keir Starmer. A vote for anyone who is not a Conservative is a vote for Keir Starmer in power.”