The right-wing leader Nigel Farage, who wants to cut migration and slash welfare spending, has called for an election so the British people can have their say about who replaces Keir Starmer and his ministers. “Britain is broken. We need an election,” he declared in a new essay timed for the crisis within Labour.
“If Labour thinks it can shove another professional politician into No 10, it has another thing coming,” Farage posted on X after Starmer’s statement.
This makes sense for Reform when it has an edge in the national polls: it had 24 per cent of the vote in a YouGov survey last week, ahead of Labour on 19 per cent and the Conservative Party on 19 per cent. In a first-past-the-post system, without the Australian approach of allowing preferences, this might put Farage in power.
An election is highly unlikely, however, because Labour has 403 seats in the House of Commons and no incentive to put this at risk.
There are questions over support for Farage, given that his candidate was soundly defeated by Labour’s Andy Burnham at the Makerfield by-election last week.
But the by-election was not an indicator of future national sentiment, because voters knew that by choosing Burnham they could bring down Starmer. If and when Burnham is prime minister, the dynamic will be very different.
