NORTH WEALD, Essex – Reform UK leader Nigel Farage spent several hours at North Weald Market this morning, drumming up support at a critical moment in a bellwether county ahead of Thursday’s local elections across the United Kingdom. The reception was both warm and at times raucous, with locals flocking for selfies, and the enthusiasm was particularly noticeable among women and younger voters.

The market itself sits on a piece of land with a striking history. It sprawls across the hard-standing of North Weald Airfield, opened in 1916 by the Royal Flying Corps to defend London from German Zeppelin raids and reborn in 1927 as one of the most distinguished fighter stations in the Royal Air Force. From this very ground, 56 Squadron’s Hawker Hurricanes scrambled in 1940 to cover the Dunkirk evacuation, and within a matter of days were taking off again, alongside the American Eagle Squadrons and two Norwegian squadrons in exile, to fight the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe duly responded, dropping more than 200 bombs on the airfield on the afternoon of 24 August 1940 and returning to bomb it again on 3 September and once more on 29 October, with dozens of servicemen killed across those raids, although the station itself was never once put out of action. The Hawker Hurricane replica that now stands gate-guard at the entrance, kept in 56 Squadron’s livery, watches over the modern market and its roughly 300 stalls.

Some 86 years on, with the threat to Britain rather different in shape, “Save us, Nigel!” was a common refrain from voters reaching the Reform leader throughout the morning, reflecting a real sense of desperation against Sir Keir Starmer’s government, which has presided over record price rises (especially in energy bills), mass migration, and an increased terror threat across the United Kingdom.

Joining Farage on the forecourt were several of Reform’s local figures, including Cllr Annie May O’Neill and Cllr Jaymey McIvor. Reform UK Ltd merchandise was moving briskly throughout the morning, with many prospective voters leaving the market having bought party shirts (available in either blue or pink), mugs, and yard signs. The market itself was once hailed as the largest open-air market in the country, and even today it regularly attracts weekly crowds estimated to exceed 10,000, with this morning’s stalls offering everything from baked goods, hot dogs, burgers, and perfumes through to apparel, fresh meats, garden furniture, and children’s toys.

Farage was happy to spend serious amounts of time with each prospective voter who reached him. The questions covered immigration and the NHS in particular, alongside a range of other subjects that have come to dominate the public conversation in Britain over the last two years.

In between the conversations, Farage was being kept in close contact by his team on developments in the Strait of Hormuz, where Donald Trump’s “Project Freedom” maritime operation launched this morning in an attempt to break Iran’s blockade of the strait, with reports already filtering in of a drone strike on an Emirati ADNOC tanker. The contrast was instructive, with Farage moving from local matters one minute to the geopolitics of the waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes the next, underlining his role as both a locally important campaigner for Reform and a national and international figure with a plausible claim on a future occupancy of Downing Street.

After several hours on the airfield, the Farage team decamped a few miles down the road to The Green Man at Toot Hill, where the Reform leader spent time with the pub’s owner, local celebrities, and voters from the surrounding area.

The reason Farage is putting in this kind of time in Essex is straightforward enough. The Conservatives won 52 of 75 seats on Essex County Council at the last contested election in 2021, with 48.7 per cent of the vote, an outcome that confirmed the county as a long-standing Tory stronghold and the Conservatives as its dominant party since 2001. PollCheck’s modeling for Thursday’s contest, which is being fought on redrawn boundaries that expand the chamber to 78 seats, now projects Reform UK to take 59 or 60 of those seats and the Conservatives to collapse to four. If the prediction holds even approximately, it will mark the steepest reversal of Tory fortunes the county has seen since the council was first constituted in 1889.

“Save us, Nigel,” indeed. On Thursday, in this corner of Essex at least, a great many voters are going to try to do exactly that.

Photographs courtesy and copyright of Stuart Mitchell.