As Prime Minister Keir Starmer is making headlines stateside after his big talk with Donald Trump, Nigel Farage is busy making news of his own. The Reform UK leader has tonight announced that Olympic boxer Luke Campbell will be the party’s candidate to become the first elected mayor for Hull and East Yorkshire. ‘He’s a knock-out candidate!’ declared Farage. Indeed.
The big unveiling received whoops and cheers from the Reform supporters packing out Hull’s Connexin Live arena this evening. Hull-born Campbell – who took home the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics – spoke to the crowd about his upbringing in the area, his career and his new hope to lead Reform UK to victory this May in the mayoral election. ‘The mayoral role for me isn’t about playing politics,’ he told his enthusiastic crowd. ‘It’s about the people of Hull. We can either sit down or stand up. We can stand up for our families, we can stand up for our communities and we can stand up for our future.’
Campbell will run against Rowan Halstead for the Yorkshire party, Tory candidate Anne Handley, Kerry Harrison for the Greens, Labour’s Margaret Pinder and Mike Ross for the Liberal Democrats. Today’s announcement comes after the government approved a devolution deal last September – which will lead to the creation of a new authority consisting of Hull City Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. And the boxing champion may be in with a pretty good shot – in July, Hull East saw Reform UK coming second to Labour with over 30 per cent of the vote while Hull North and Hull West both saw Reform UK candidates in second place and take over a fifth of the constituency vote. It’s going to be a rather interesting contest…
This isn’t the first mayoral candidate the Farage-founded party has announced of late. In November, Reform unveiled its Greater Lincolnshire candidate to be none other than former Conservative MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns. The former Tory defected to the group after losing the new seat of Leeds South West and Morley to Labour at the July election and has lauded her new party for being ‘patriotic bravehearts’ who would ‘deliver the fresh start this country so desperately needs’.
With Reform on the up, polling above Labour in a number of recent surveys, while Brits lose faith in Starmer’s army, Farage’s party members are feeling pretty excited about the looming local elections. Will Campbell sweep to victory? Watch this space…
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