Election latest: Nigel Farage demands to be included in leaders' event after Reform pulls ahead of Tories in poll (2024)

Earlier we reported on comments made by chief secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott, who claimed in a news conference that Labour was deliberately failing to rule out 18 potential tax rises.

She also said Labour would "take the tax burden to a record high" (see more in 11.04 post).

Responding to her remarks, Darren Jones, Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said it was a sign of "chaos and desperation" in the Conservative campaign "that they are spending their time talking about things they have imagined and that Labour isn't doing".

"The only surprise is that the imaginary 'meat tax' and the fantasy seven bins haven't made another appearance," he said.

Mr Jones reiterated that Labour's pledges were "fully-funded and costed" and claimed the Tories' plans would "leave families paying £4,800 more on their mortgages".

However, this claim from Labour has been branded "very speculative" and based on "multiple assumptions" by Full Fact.

By Tom Cheshire, Megan Harwood-Baynes, Mary Poynter, online campaign team

How bad is the Conservative brand?

Bad enough for dozens of its own candidates to avoid using it, according to research from Sky's Online Campaign Team and Who Targets Me.

We looked at the adverts published on Facebook and Instagram by 521 Labour and Conservative candidates from 1 May until 12 June.

Of these, 376 adverts contained official branding (logos and colours), 104 had some form of partial branding, and 41 had no branding at all.

And the vast majority of those with no branding - 38 - were Conservative.

Read more here:

Sky News deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico's Jack Blanchard are in your podcast feeds with their guide to the election day ahead.

This is day 23 of the campaign. Jack and Sam discuss the latest polling which shows Reform UK overtaking the Conservatives for the first time, the aftermath of Labour's manifesto launch, and what the Lib Dems are up to in the so-called Tory Blue Wall.

👉Tap here to follow Politics at Jack and Sam's wherever you get your podcasts👈

Email Jack and Sam: jackandsam@sky.uk

Nigel Farage has now finished addressing the media at a news conference in London after a poll showed Reform UK one point ahead of the Tories for the first time.

He demandedthat the BBC includes him in an upcoming four-way leaders' debate, and said he wants a head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer on immigration.

He said that voting Tory in the Red Wall will be a "wasted vote" because they will end up with a Labour MP.

Mr Farage also said that a Labour win in this election is a given, and that he wants to be the official leader of the opposition (which would require being the second-largest party in parliament).

He said Reform UK could with over six million votes - although it is very unclear how many seats such a number could translate into.

Scroll down for the full details of the event.

Next, Nigel Farage is asked if he might encounter similar problems to the German AfD party, that also grew very rapidly, with candidates and election politicians having been found to hold or have expressed far right views.

The Reform UK leader replies: "In my previous incarnation as leader of UKIP, I had an absolute rule that nobody who'd ever been part of the British National Party or any organisation like that could even be a member of the party, let alone a candidate, and I was absolutely ruthless about that."

He goes on to say that, as a result of that rule, he "did more to destroy the British National Party as an electoral force in Britain than absolutely anybody else".

He adds: "Of course, because it's been a very rapidly called election, and because 450 of our candidates have never stood before, they're not politicos, they would have liked things on Facebook with links to somebody else, it doesn't make them extreme right or far right.

"I don't want support from people like that. I've never had the support or worked with people like that. I never will support people like that.

"I am acutely aware of the problem. We are in a better place with all of that than the AfD."

After claiming that Reform UK could win more than six million votes, Nigel Farage is asked whether his party is really in a position to capitalise on their rising support.

He replies: "Not really, no."

He says they are "not as organised and developed as the Liberal Democrats" who are "very, very good at their ground game".

"We're honest with you, we admit we are not in that position.

"So, the way that we do it … the only way we can do this is we have to get the total number of votes well up over that six million figure, and if we do that we will start to break through with seats."

Mr Farage says people are "coming forward enthusiastically to help us", joining the party, and donating.

"Money is flowing in through the door, support and help is coming in."

He adds: "I'd have loved six months of this. We haven't got six months, we've got three more weeks.

"We're making the best of what we can, but I do think there's a very, very big gap in the electoral market out there."

Next to pose a question is Sky News political correspondent Rob Powell, and he asks Nigel Farage if the most realistic way of becoming leader of the opposition after the election - as he stated he wants to - is actually joining the Tories, and if he will rule that out.

Mr Farage labels the question "boring", and says the Tory brand is "done", pointing to a poll over the weekend showing that around a quarter of 2019 Tory voters want the government to win zero seats.

"This isn't just a sort of change that happens election to election - this is a wholesale rejection by a significant number of Conservative voters."

He claims that without Reform UK, those voters would "stay at home" and not vote because they are "disgusted by the political system".

Although Mr Farage did not explicitly rule out joining the Tories, he repeated when pushed by Rob that their brand is "done".

Next, Nigel Farage is asked if Conservative candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns asked his permission to use a photo of the pair of them together on her election leaflet.

He replies: "No, Andrea didn't ask my permission, but she did send me a very nice text saying, what do you think. A bit late by then, wasn't it?"

But he says the fact she used that image in the first place shows "the depth of division that exists within the Conservative Party".

Nigel Farage is taking questions from the media.

It is put to him that, as in the past, he may win millions of votes, but barely any seats, and is asked what that would say about the electoral system.

The Reform UK leader replies that in 2015, UKIP - which he led at the time - won four million votes, but just one seat.

"Never in the history of British elections had so many votes counted for so few seats," he says, and adds that he was "pretty wounded by it".

He estimates that Reform UK will win over six million votes at this general election.

But he says this election is "our first step towards building for 2029", and pledges that no matter what, they will start campaigning for that "on 5 July".

"If we did finish up with a huge number of votes, and a paltry number of seats, do you know what it would do? It would tell us, yet again, that Britain is broken and Britain needs reform.

"And that reform includes the electoral system, that reform includes the abomination that is the House of Lords, and that reform includes the right, as people in Switzerland has, to call referendums on key issues if they think their government and parliament are out of touch with them."

Nigel Farage has just been speaking at a news conference in London in the wake of one YouGov poll that showed Reform ahead of the Tories for the first time, by 1pt.

Here's what he said, as he said it (this post was updated live):

• The Reform UK leader argues there is "momentum" behind the party, and that is now showing in the polls;
• "It was a delight last night to see that the inflection poll has arrived";
• Mr Farage claims that in some areas of England, Reform is "significantly ahead of the Conservatives";
• "If you vote Conservative in the Red Wall, you will almost certainly get Labour - a Conservative vote in the Red Wall is now a wasted vote. We are now the challengers to Labour - we are now the real opposition";
• He demands that the BBC includes him in an upcoming four-way leaders' debate, and says he wants a head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer;
• Specifically, he wants to challenge the Labour leader on why tackling mass migration is not in his top six priorities;
• A Labour win in this election is a given, he says, and says he wants to be the official leader of the opposition after the election (which would require being the second-largest party in parliament);
• He says to the country: "Join the revolt - what have you got to lose?"