General election live: Nigel Farage to stand in election and become leader of Reform UK

David Graham

12 months ago

General election live: Nigel Farage to stand in election and become leader of Reform UK – BBC News

Summary

Nigel Farage says he will stand for election in Clacton – days after ruling himself out
At a campaign event in central London, Farage also confirms he will become leader of Reform UK
A full list of candidates for Clacton will be available on the BBC News website when nominations close on Friday
Earlier, Sir Keir Starmer said Britain would be “fit to fight” under Labour as he outlined the party’s defence plans
Meanwhile, the Conservatives have pledged to tackle the “confusion” over the legal definition of sex by amending the Equality Act if they win the election
Scotland’s FM John Swinney tells the BBC the plans, which include making gender reassignment a reserved issue for the UK government, are “an explicit, outright threat” to devolution
Later, the first TV election debate will take place at 21:00 on STV featuring leaders from the SNP, Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour and Scottish Liberal Democrats