Nigel Farage makes wild claim about Reform UK's General Election chances

Reform UK boss Nigel Farage said 'the opportunity is there' and said the party has 'come of age' following a crisis-plagued General Election campaign this summer

Nigel Farage insisted that Reform UK could win a General Election as he claimed his party has "come of age".

The former Ukip leader claimed "the opportunity is there" to trounce the Tories and Labour in five years' time. He vowed to make the party more professional after it was hampered by a series of embarrassments over the summer.

But he was accused of treating being an MP as a "taxpayer-funded side hustle" after analysis showed he and his Reform colleagues had voted in less than a third of votes. They voted a combined 21 times from a possible 75, while three of them - Mr Farage, Richard Tice and Lee Anderson - raked in a combined £166,000 from second jobs.

A Labour source told The Mirror: “Serving as an MP should be a privilege but for Nigel Farage, it’s clearly a taxpayer-funded side hustle."

Speaking in front of 4,000 cheering supporters at the Reform conference in Birmingham, chairman Zia Yusuf claimed Mr Farage could one day become PM.

The party leader, who followed him to the stage, said: "When Zia comes along and says it obvious we're fighting to win the next General Election, people think... 'he's lost his marbles'.

"But I don't think there's ever been a time when there is greater disenchantment in the two big parties that have dominated our political life for the last 100 years. Labour have not won through there. The opportunity is there."

He pledged to root out extremists after admitting that the party's vetting wasn't up to scratch. He said: "We had the teenage tantrums, which caused us the most problems in the general election.

"But we're now at a different point. The party is an adult. And this weekend Reform UK comes of age."

The comments came on a madcap day which also saw loudmouth Lee Anderson rip up a TV licence reminder as he was cheered on by supporters.

Bizarrely, Mr Anderson added: "The greatest achievement during my political career was in 2022. I was voted the worst man in Britain by The Daily Mirror."