Love him or hate him – and most people have strong opinions about him – Nigel Farage is the most consequential British politician of our age.

Brexit would not have happened had his success in European elections not first panicked David Cameron into calling the referendum and then stampeded voters to Boris Johnson to get Brexit done. He was the man who hung “Stop the Boats” like a millstone around Rishi Sunak’s neck.

Next Farage tipped over this election. His latest party Reform UK would not be counting four MPs this morning without him: Tory defector Lee Anderson in Great Yarmouth, businessman and party number two Richard Tice in Boston and Skegness, Rupert Lowe in Great Yarmouth and of course Nigel Farage sitting on a 8,000 majority in Clacton.

Whether through calculation or opportunism Farage sold the Conservatives a dummy at the beginning of this campaign. The election in the US he said was more important than our one and he was off to work for his friend Donald Trump. Sunak saw a gap and rushed to call a snap vote before Farage could regroup. But then Farage got it together and stood in Clacton, a carefully chosen seat which had previously been held by Ukip.

Farage’s entry into the race earned another round of national attention and has now split the vote on the right, letting Sir Keir Starmer to celebrate a landslide Labour victory in parliament on a scale with Tony........

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