Nigel Farage formally begins Clacton by-election marketing campaign with speech to small London viewers

Mr Farage delivered the keynote speech at CPAC GB – a spinoff of a huge American pro-Donald Trump convention, hosted by failed former Tory PM Liz Truss

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Nigel Farage gave the first speech of his Clacton by-election campaign to a poorly attended right wing conference in London, 84 miles from the voters he seeks to represent.

“I’ve taken a punt,” he told the audience, which included Tory and Reform UK MPs as well as hard right activists and influencers. “I like a gamble.”

He delivered the keynote speech at CPAC GB – a spinoff of a huge American pro-Donald Trump convention, hosted by failed former Tory PM Liz Truss. Farage drew the largest crowd of the day, but nobody struggled to find a seat in the small, 500-seater auditorium.

In the speech, he confirmed he was standing in the Clacton by-election despite the boycott from all other main parties. He described being subjected to scrutiny over the £5m gift he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne as a “coordinated pile on”, suggesting he had been “criticised, demonised, dehumanised in the most extraordinary way.”

He painted a bleak picture of “broken Britain”, claiming men no longer wear watches and women don’t wear jewellery in London for fear they’ll be mugged.

“I honestly believe we’re less than a decade away from effectively turning into a third world country,” he claimed.

He took aim at both Andy Burnham and Kemi Badenoch, accusing the new Labour leader of having “no mandate” to become Prime Minister, and demanded an “immediate general election.”

“The only certainty with Burnham is we’re going to get more of the same, but they’ll go further to the left than they already are.”

He said “nothing will get better under Andy Burnham” and “he says he wants to have the biggest change of direction in politics in 40 years, outside of 25,000 voters in Makerfield he has literally no mandate for this at all”.

And he said of the Tory leader: “Everything Kemi stands for is the complete opposite of what they did in government. I don’t believe the last Conservative government can ever be forgiven for what they did.”

Mr Farage, whose main opponent in the Clacton by-election he needlessly forced is Count Binface, a comedian dressed as a dustbin from space, said he was under attack from the “establishment” because Reform had confounded the assumption that Reform would implode.

“Don’t worry about Reform, they’ll implode, they’ll fall to pieces, they’re a disaster zone,” he said. “They decided that if they couldn’t beat us by fair means, they’d beat us by foul means.”

The other candidates up against Farage in August’s by-election include hard right former actor Laurence Fox, Howling Laud Hope for the Monster Raving Loony Party and anti-vaxx activist Piers Corbyn, the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy.

He’ll also face independents Luke Worley, who was a contestant on Channel 4 reality show ‘Dating Naked’, Robert Elwes, who appeared on Channel 5’s ‘Rich House, Poor House’, Rees Cowne, and Mr Fishfinger.

Labour, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats or Green Party all chose not to field candidates in the election.