London, 4 June 2024 (PA Media/dpa/MIA) – Nigel Farage has set out his goal for the Reform UK party to effectively take over the British Conservative Party – and potentially put him in the prime minister's official residence at Number 10 Downing Street in London in future.

The Reform UK leader said he would be a “bloody nuisance” in Westminster if he succeeds in becoming a member of parliament at his eighth attempt.

Addressing hundreds of supporters at a rally in the seaside town Clacton-on-Sea to the north-east of London after announcing he would stand for election there, Farage said the Conservatives should “pay a big price” for betraying the promises of Brexit.

The veteran Eurosceptic suggested a “chunk” of the Conservatives could join his party and compared the situation to Canadian politics, where Stephen Harper had been elected as a Reform MP but went on to head a “new Conservative” government.

Farage on Monday U-turned on his previous suggestion he would not stand in this general election, opting to fight in Clacton and being installed as Reform leader in place of Richard Tice.

Polling by YouGov suggest that 58% of Britons do not want to see Farage enter parliament, with 46% of those asked saying they did not want him as an MP “at all” and 12% choosing “not very much.”

Of the respondents who said they voted Conservative in the 2019 election, 51% want to see the Reform UK leader in the House of Commons, while 36% did not.

The Conservatives appear on course for a heavy defeat on July 4, according to projections by pollsters, with YouGov suggesting they could be reduced to just 140 out of a total of 650 seats.

Addressing a rally at Clacton Pier, Farage hit out at the Tories over the handling of Brexit: “We made an offer to the British people, we could get back our independence and control of our borders.

“But what has happened? The Conservatives have betrayed that trust. They’ve opened up the borders to mass immigration like we’ve never seen before.

“And they deserve to pay a price for that, a big price for that.”

Farage said the general election was already effectively over: “That breach of trust from the Conservatives means they are finished, they are done.

“We are going to get a Labour government. Whether you like it or not, we are going to get a Labour government – the question is, who is going to be the voice of opposition?”

He urged voters to send him "to parliament to be a bloody nuisance.”

“A Labour government won’t make any real changes at all, we need radical surgery in this country,” he said.

As he left a pub where he had gone following his Clacton rally, the Reform UK leader was hit with a drink, which appeared to be a banana milkshake.

Images appear to show a McDonald’s banana milkshake being thrown at the Reform UK leader as he left the Moon and Starfish pub.

He was seen with the yellow drink splattered over his dark blue suit jacket as he was escorted to his campaign bus.

A 25-year-old woman from Clacton was arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault.

Farage has been the target of “milkshaking” incidents before. He had a £5.25 ($5.71) Five Guys banana and salted caramel milkshake thrown at him in 2019 during a campaign walkabout in Newcastle.

Culprit Paul Crowther was ordered by a court to pay compensation to Farage following the act. He admitted assault and criminal damage to a £239 lapel microphone on Farage’s suit.

“Milkshaking” – the act of dousing public figures in milkshake – was officially recognized by Collins Dictionary the same year.