Thank you for the explanation, so this is basically for the election as MP. Does this mean that Farage's party also can't win in the next general election (and make him PM)? AFAIK him becoming PM was a worry.

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inejge 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Any party can win if it gets the majority of candidates across all parliamentary constituencies. However, a Prime Minister must be elected as an MP somewhere. If Reform got a majority without Farage being elected, they would be in a strange situation where the leader of the party couldn't become the PM. It's amusing to think about, in a schadenfreudish way, but the chances of that are slim. He would certainly stand in a general election for the same seat, other major parties would contest it, and it seems that Clacton-on-Sea supports him over the others. This by-election is special because the major parties are boycotting it for being a self-serving stunt that it is.

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hdgvhicv an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

To be prime minister you have to have support of 50%+1 of the MPs. This means either having them in your party, or having a deal with another party.

You also have to be an MP.

Currently Kier Starmer is a Labour mp in an area of London. He’s resigning and is being replaced by someone (Burnham) who was Labour Mayor for Manchester, but stood as MP in an area of Manchester last month after another Labour MP resigned.

Burnham beat reform in that election, and Count Binface. There was a discussion thy given how unpopular Labour is, that reform might win. In the end everyone who was anti reform (Farage’s party) voted Burnham and he got 55% of the vote.

While the sentiment in the U.K. is that if a general election were held tomorrow, Farage would win his seat, and reform would win a large number of votes. In reality polling puts Farage’s party around 25%, with four other parties on 10-20%. As the election isn’t proportional though it’s possible reform could get 55% of the seats with 25% of the vote, however last time they got 1% of the seats with 12% of the votes.

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onion2k 23 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

You also have to be an MP.

I don't think that's strictly true. You definitely don't have to be an MP in order to hold a cabinet office. I think that extends to the PM as well. It's never been tried obviously.

	▲	bluehatbrit a minute ago \| parent [-]
		[delayed]

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stavros 41 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

That's very informative, thanks!

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calcifer an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

There are very few ways of becoming PM without also being an MP. The PM must be able to sit in the commons, so he must either be an MP or a member of the Lords. In theory, the current PM or even the King could make him a Peer, and therefore a member of the Lords, but neither is likely :)

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dmurray 27 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Farage can't realistically be PM in the current parliamentary session anyway. His party needs to win, or do very well in, the next general election instead. At a national level this election is purely symbolic and dictates whether Reform will have 7 or 8 seats out of the 650.

I suppose that in theory if Reform could form a government after the next election, but Farage still didn't get a seat, a party colleague could become PM and appoint him as a peer. There's a rich history of politicians losing elections and getting appointed this way instead, though as far as I know none of them subsequently became PM.

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hdgvhicv 43 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The last time a PM wasn’t in the commons properly was 1902, although technically Douglas Holme became PM before getting a seat, however Parliament didn’t resume until after he became an MP

A Lord can’t address the commons, which was most recently an issue when ex PM David Cameron was made foreign secretary in the dying days of the last Tory governemt.

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DamonHD 40 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Do you mean "must be able to sit in Parliament"? The Lords and Commons are the two distinct chambers.

There have been non-MP (ie non-Commons) PMs.

	▲	calcifer 33 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Sorry yes, I meant the parliament.