Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage Demands General Election After Prime Minister Keir Starmer Resigns

On May the 7th, in the Midlands, Yorkshire, all the north of England, Reform scored absolutely stunning victories in areas that Labour had dominated for the best part of 100 years. The sheer scale of our victory against Labour made it inevitable that this Prime Minister could not survive. And because of that, Burnham steps forward and wins, quite convincingly, the Makerfield by-election. Ironically, with the same message that we had in the local elections. Ours was vote Reform, get Starmer out. His was vote Burnham, get Starmer out. Unbelievably, we're about to have our sixth Prime Minister in seven years. I remember growing up thinking Italy was totally ungovernable as they went through a new Prime Minister every year, and yet that's where we are here. Why is it all happening? And why did we get that big number of in the north of England? Well, 10 years ago, on the 23rd of June, 2016, we voted Brexit. Much of our political establishment has never accepted the result. And even those that reluctantly did, namely the Conservative Party, refused to implement what voters demanded, namely lower levels of immigration and more freedom for our sole traders and small businesses. They were just two of the benefits we could have taken having got back self-governance. Under Starmer, the Labour Party has moved much closer back to the European Union. And if Mr Burnham wins, they'll go closer still. Which means Labour voters and the Labour Party are completely divided on this issue. But the bigger point today is that of a mandate, is that of legitimacy. I've no idea whether there'll be a contest or a coronation. But what I do know is the British public have simply had enough of political parties chopping and changing their leaders at will. We vote for somebody in a general election to be our Prime Minister. We expect them to serve their term. And barring ill health or exceptional circumstances, what is going on here, frankly, is reminiscent of a banana republic that has totally devalued the very process of general elections and democracy. I demand, we at Reform demand, a general election. After all, when the Conservatives were chopping and changing Prime Ministers, Labour kept saying there should be a general election. On that point, the Conservative Party say there's no need for a general election because they're part, frankly, of the Uniparty. It's as if the whole thing is a game. Labour did not actually carry out their mandate of 24, did a whole number of things. A whole number of things, whether it was the tax on family farms, the giving away of the Chagos Islands and much else that wasn't in the manifesto. If it is Mr Burnham, he didn't even stand at the last general election. Britain is broken. Six Prime Ministers in seven years should convince you of that fact. We are ready for a general election and I suspect many of you too are ready for a general election. The thought we're going to go through, weeks, maybe months of paralysis in a country whose debt is rising faster than any country in the world apart from Botswana, where the boats continue to come across the English Channel every day. The whole thing is not acceptable. Let's have a general election. Let's get a government with a clear democratic mandate.