Nigel Farage has praised Reform’s early performance in former Brexit voting seats as “almost unbelievable” and predicted the party will win “many seats across the country” as the election unfolds.
The far-right party is expected to win as many as 13 seats in the general election, according to exit polls at 10pm. Statements from the north-east of England show they are polling ahead of the Conservatives and just behind Labour.
The forecast also suggests Farage, who caused a political earthquake on the right when he returned as leader of the party last month, will win the Essex seat of Clacton.
Farage responded to the exit polls for the first time using a video posted on Predictions are far more important. It’s almost unbelievable.
“What does that mean? It means we’re going to win seats across the country now, I think many, many seats. But looking at the TV coverage, it’s almost comical.
“There’s not a single representative from Reform Britain there and the mainstream media are in denial as are our parties. That’s going to be over six million votes. Guys, that’s huge.
While there was caution over how the 20,000-strong poll ultimately translated into seats, it was clear that millions of people voted for the far-right, anti-immigration party, which has previously said it intends to destroy the Conservatives.
Reform Party deputy leader Ben Habib was the first of the party’s senior figures to use the BBC/ITV/Sky survey to make predictions. He wrote on Twitter: “This is a huge bridgehead. This is politically shocking. This is the beginning of the British nation-state’s counterattack.
The early announcement highlighted a surge in support for the party in the northeast of England, a once-strongly pro-Brexit region, where the Reform Party overtook the Conservatives in a number of seats.
The new north-east seat of Blyth and Ashington was won by Labour’s Ian Lavery with 50% of the vote, but shockingly the Reform Party won with 27% ranked second in the vote share. Its candidate, Mark Peart, received 10,857 votes, more than 4,700 votes ahead of the Conservatives.
The Reform Party received 10,779 votes in Sunderland centre, 6,073 behind newly elected Labor MP Lewis Atkinson, pushing the Conservatives into third place with almost twice as many votes.
The result – Labour’s support for the reform wing was 7.7% – and the city became iconic for announcing its support for Brexit early on the night of the European referendum result.
While Farage has been tight-lipped on how many seats he expects to win, it is believed the projected seat share is much higher than he had originally hoped.
Peter Harris, Farage’s agent, told the Guardian it was early days but the party appeared to be in a strong position. “We can see that the turnout is very high. In places like Jaywick, the queues are very long, and the people in them have not voted before, or have not given up voting until now,” he said.
The expected vote share makes it possible for voters to elect reform MPs in target seats in Essex, Kent Coast, South Wales, Yorkshire and the Humber.
Richard Tice, chairman of the Reform Party and the man who stood down for Farage’s return, appears to be in a strong position in the Lincolnshire constituency of Boston and Skegness, which has been dominated by conservatives since 2015 Party Representative Tory Matt Warman.
Others in a strong position include former Southampton Football Club chairman Rupert Lowe, who is running in Great Yarmouth, an area controlled by the Conservatives since 2010.
Professor John Curtice, a psychologist and chief election analyst at the BBC, sounded the alarm, saying the projected seat share for Reform UK and the SNP was He and others are least certain about the two numbers.
More from The Guardian
