Love him or hate him, there’s one man who’s shaken up this election campaign — Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party.

Mr Farage is a long-time political campaigner, a Eurosceptic, a friend of Donald Trump, and came third in the UK’s 2023 series of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! — which was filmed in Australia.

Reform UK’s signature policy is to freeze all non-essential immigration and stop small boats carrying migrants from crossing the English Channel.

At first, Mr Farage ruled out running for election, but just days into the campaign he made a dramatic U-turn.

He now looks set to win the Clacton constituency. 

Mr Farage has a lot of support in Clacton-on-Sea, a town on England’s east coast that overwhelmingly voted in favour of Brexit in 2016.

When I met him there at a pub last week, he was surrounded by people nodding in enthusiastic agreement at everything he said.

A few kilometres away in the centre of town though, it wasn’t hard to find people who loathed the man. Many feel like he’s using Clacton to finally get into Westminster (having already tried and failed seven times) and will abandon locals afterwards. 

There have also been allegations of racism, homophobia, and Islamophobia levelled at Reform UK.

So how influential could Nigel Farage and Reform UK be?

Under the first-past-the-post electoral system, the party looks like to win a number of parliamentary seats. However, it’s the votes they have taken away from the centre-right Conservative Party that will be particularly telling.

Tory voters who decide to back Reform candidates this time will make it easier for the centrist Liberal Democrats or centre-left Labour opposition to pick up seats.

Appearing to all but concede defeat earlier this week, Conservative PM Rishi Sunak said only his party could counter a Labour-led government and that Reform UK would hamper any chance of his party forming a strong opposition.

Ultimately, Mr Farage wants to supplant the Conservatives as the main party of the right.