People queued in the blistering heat to listen to Nigel Farage as he continued his campaign trail.

The new leader of Reform UK visited Maidstone today (June 24) in his latest election stop, where he touched on immigration and his recent comments on the Russia/Ukraine war.

Long queues formed just before midday to get into a fenced off field opposite the Mercure Great Danes Hotel, in Hollingbourne, ahead of his arrival.

Just over 200 seats were filled, while others stood behind the chairs or to the side of the field to watch the party leader.

Water was being offered to those waiting in the heat as they sat looking at a Reform UK-branded bus.

One couple from Hoo said: “We cannot wait to see him. We met him when he visited our local pub in Hoo.

“We have been leafleting for him and the reaction has been really good.”

Just after midday, the Reform candidate for Maidstone and Malling, Paul Thomas, addressed the crowd to say he would change the housing in Maidstone to help those who need it most and the SEND education for youngsters.

He then welcomed his party leader who appeared from the back of the crowd and joined him at the top of the bus.

Mr Farage, dressed in a suit and hat, was warmly welcomed before saying: “You may have noticed that we are doing rather well. There is a momentum.

“We are the subject of conversation around the family breakfast table.

“There is more conservation about Reform, about me I guess, than there is anything else going on in this campaign.

“I guess that is partly because Sunak and Starmer are simply so monotone, so dull, so boring, and do not say anything particularly believable.

“But it is also because as the new kids of the block, we have stunned everyone on how quickly we have leapt.

“I cannot stand the lies and hypocrisy of these people who say things one year and completely change them the next.

“What you will always get with me is thoughtful, considered, consistent political leadership.”

The former UKIP leader revealed earlier this year he was undecided whether he would take his eighth punt at trying to become an MP.

He even ruled it out completely in May as he said he was going to dedicate his time to the US election.

However, the staunch Brexiteer, who welcomed a grandchild into the world yesterday, which happens to be the eight anniversary of Brexit, made a dramatic U-turn earlier this month by announcing he would be contesting the Clacton seat in Essex.

Read More: What does the return of Farage mean for Kent?

The veteran politician launched Reform’s campaign in Dover at the end of May with a backdrop of Union Flags and slogans promising to save Britain.

Farage unsuccessfully contested the South Thanet seat in the 2005 and 2015 general elections.

Recently, he criticised Boris Johnson, after the former prime minister accused him of writing “nauseating ahistorical drivel” about Ukraine.

The crowd was full of supporters and campaigners for the Reform party, with shouts of “stop the boats” during Farage’s thoughts on immigration, and “traitor” when Keir Starmer was brought up.

Farage said on the BBC’s The Panorama Interviews Friday programme that “we provoked this war”, in reference to countries in eastern Europe signing up to Nato and the European Union, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Writing in the Telegraph on Saturday, he urged readers not to “blame” him for “telling the truth about Putin’s war”.

The other candidates running for Maidstone and Malling are Helen Grant (Con), Maureen Cleator (Labour), Dave Naghi (Lib Dem), Stuart Jeffery (Green), Gary Butler (British Democrats) and Yolande Ann Kenward (Ind).