(Alliance News) – Nigel Farage has said he is “confident” Reform UK will be second in the opinion polls by next week at a UK general election campaign event in Clacton.

It came a day after the party leader said he wanted Reform to establish a “bridgehead” in Parliament with a view to a full assault at a 2029 general election and himself in No 10.

Farage received a standing ovation from hundreds of voters at a campaign event at the Princes Theatre on Tuesday evening as he entered the auditorium to Eminem’s hit Without Me.

Dozens of attendees queued outside the theatre before the doors opened and the 826-seat venue was almost full by the time Farage took to the stage.

Speaking on stage between two Union flags, the Reform UK leader said: “Something very exciting is going on.

“We are even or just ahead of the Conservative Party in the opinion polls.”

He added: “We will, I’m quite confident, by early next week clearly be in second place in the opinion polls.

“And this matters – and it matters because for democracy to function, you need to have opposition.”

Farage continued: “Establishing that bridgehead in Parliament, are we going to do it? We are going to do it.

“Be in no doubt and then spend the next five years getting ready to fight the 2029 general election as a party that believes it could win that general election and put our policy, put our country back on track. That’s the aim.”