Nigel Farage has left people guessing about whether he is about to make a comeback to frontline politics in a move which could cause massive upheaval in the UK.
The former Brexit Party and Ukip leader was giving an interview on GB News with Camilla Tominey and left a tantalising “I haven’t made up my mind” when asked about his desire to step back into the fray.
But Mr Farage, who only returned from his stint in the Australian jungle with ITV’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here last week, admitted he has been looking at the polls and his personal ratings.
He said that his 23 nights on the show had given him access to a whole new group of voters “who were 12 years old at the the time of the referendum took place who are now of voting age who didn’t know much about Nigel Farage. That was useful.”
He went on: “Secondly there were people out their who have come to hate me because of what was written about me. I did think this was a real opportunity. You can’t really pretend over three and a half weeks to pretend to be what you are not. The number of people over the first few days who have said to me ‘Nigel we never liked you before but now we think you are a normal ordinary bloke.”
He added: “So I think it has done me a lot of good and there’s some polling out among 2019 Co nservative voters suggesting a 20 percent shift in my favour.”
Ms Tominey laughed, asking: “Why are you looking at polling about your political favour?”
Farage responded: “People send it to me and let’s face it voters are people.”
A Techne Uk poll last week showed the Farage’s Reform UK with him back in charge could wipeout the Tories.
He admitted that one thing holding him back was feeling “bruised” by the 2015 election when he led Ukip to get a record 4 million votes but only ended up with one seat. He said that with a proportional system he definitely would make a comeback.
Tominey said: “We need to to know what you are planning!”
Mr Farage admitted: “I do too! But nothing at the momnent.”
But Mr Farage, currently GB News’ star presenter, went on to attack the Tories for “mismanaging the country” and taking it back to the 1970s with “managed decline”.
He said: “I don’t see any prospect of a Starmer government be any different.”
He identified the population explosion caused by legal immigration “on levels we never even dreamt off”, a failure with the NHS and the cost of living crisis as the three key issues.
He said: “I have to decide could I make a positive difference?”
But he noted that he has “more options after doing the jungle.”
He said it was a choice between “an easy life or going back into the helter skelter world of politics.”
He said a return to politics though “is just speculation”.
But he added: “I genuinely haven’t made my mind up. On a political level it’s a big decision and on a personal level too.”
The attraction is that his Reform UK Party (formerly the Brexit Party) is making gains in the polls with 12 percent in some surveys.
Earlier in the show senior Brexiteer Tory MP Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group (ERG), said he would welcome Farage into the Conservative Party.
He said: “There is definitely room on the right of the pew.”
but Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden dismissed MPs hankering for Farage to join them.
“We don’t need Nigel Farage to win the next election,” he told GB News.
