UK: Farage To Take Over As Leader Of Reform UK

Richard Tice, erstwhile head of the right-wing populist Reform UK party, has announced that (at his invitation) former UKIP and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage will return to lead Reform UK (a successor to both parties mentioned) ahead of the 4 July general election. Farage has said that he intends to lead the party for the next five years, and will stand in the seat of Clacton on England's southeast coast, won by Conservative Giles Watling in 2019 with a 24.7k majority. 

• The UK's first-past-the-post electoral system and the party's divisive policy stances makes it very difficult for Reform UK to win any seats in the House of Commons despite currently polling in third place nationwide behind only Labour and the Conservatives. 
• Reform's main influence on the election will come from its impact on the vote share of other parties, most notably the Conservatives. While Reform's anti-immigration stances has seen it peform well in white, working-class areas of northern England where Labour historically has been strong, the party garners much of its support from disaffected Conservatvies. With the well-known Farage now heading the Reform campaign this is only likely to further depress the prospects of anything other than a sizeable Labour majority in the Commons after the election.