Has Rishi stopped Nigel? The Telegraph is reporting that the Reform UK honorary president Nigel Farage was preparing to announce his candidacy for the general election next week - but he ditched the idea when the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an early than expected general election on July 4.
The timeline sounds about right given that Farage had told friends and colleagues at his 60th birthday party a few weeks ago that he would be making a decision about his future shortly.
The honorary president of Reform UK said in a statement that now was not “the right time” for him to stand and pointing to the importance of the US election. Referring to the timing of the July 4 election, he said: "I will do my bit to help in the campaign, but now is not the right time for me to go any further than that."
He is understood to have thought that a lengthy period of campaigning in order to win the Westminster seat that has eluded him seven times in the past would not have been possible in a six week campaign.
The honorary president of Reform UK said in a statement that now was not “the right time” for him to stand
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If so, then it is an early win for Sunak's huge gamble, the biggest ever by a sitting Prime Minister so far behind in the polls.
It appears that Sunak has neutralised one of the threats to him overhauling Labour's huge polling lead - a Reform party led by Farage.
Weekend polls which could well now see Reform lose ground in the polls to the Tories as voters excited by the prospect of a Farage return start to lose enthusiasm and the Reform balloon starts to deflate.
This would be a huge boost for Sunak, who is under real pressure from among his own Tory MPs for calling an election that many were not prepared for, and did not want given Labour's polling lead.
Farage's decision will be a disappointment for those who wanted one of the most influential politicians of the past three decades in the House of Commons.
All is not over for Farage. He is only 60 and younger than Sir Keir Starmer who - if he becomes PM as the polls suggest - will be 65 at the next election.
But I can't help thinking that Farage has missed an opportunity here, with the Tories so weak and divided. Polling commissioned by donor Arron Banks had shown he was likely to win in Clacton, for example.
And Farage needs to be in the Commons - and so on the pitch - if he wants to shape rightwing politics over the next five years. But he won't be.
And that is an unexpected and early campaign win for Sunak and his strategists, who have done better than predecessors like David Cameron and Theresa May and for now seen off the threat of Farage.
