Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right Reform Party, has for many years been the bête noire of the British left, largely because of his support for Brexit and his opposition to mass immigration. He is routinely called a racist, a bigot, and a reactionary fantasist who would take Britain back to the Dark Ages. Milkshakes and other objects have been hurled at him by “antifascist” demonstrators. (One comedian famously said on the BBC she wished he’d been pelted with battery acid instead.)
But Farage has always rebutted the accusations of neofascism by insisting that a desire to secure Britain’s borders and remove illegal migrants does not make one “far right.” Indeed, Farage has been able to credibly claim to be a democratic bulwark against the actual extremism embodied by the anti-grooming gang activist Tommy Robinson or the overtly racist British National Party.
Until now.
Farage has made what looks like a serious error of political judgment by seeking a pact with the genuinely radical Rupert Lowe, who leads the Elon Musk-supported Restore Britain Party. Lowe has openly praised Robinson and his “ethnonationalism” (the belief that white Christian values are under assault in Britain and must be protected by reversing multiculturalism).
Farage said he had been exploring talks with Lowe over the weekend. But this doesn’t appear to have gone well. The Restore leader accused Farage of being a “liar,” and issued a 12-minute video outlining his demands.
These include mass repatriation of “millions” of immigrants (including even some here legally); a referendum on reintroducing the death penalty; burka and cousin-marriage bans; and the exclusion of former Conservative Party ministers, like Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, from any future Reform government (for context, Braverman is Reform’s home affairs spokeswoman, and Jenrick is Farage’s choice for Chancellor of the Exchequer).
These demands could never be accepted by the Reform chief, who says that he alone will decide who is to be in his government. Yet both sides still say some kind of deal to stand down in each other’s target seats is possible.
Many of Farage’s less radical supporters are dismayed by all this, especially as it comes amidst what has turned into a rather grim summer for Reform.
To start with, Farage’s personal reputation has taken a battering recently. After it emerged that he had received a gift of £5 million from a Thai-based billionaire shortly before he returned to Parliament, an investigation was opened by the Westminster Standards Commissioner into whether Farage should have declared it. Farage responded by resigning his seat, forcing a by-election in the coastal town of Clacton-on-Sea.
The main UK parties have boycotted this ballot, so Farage’s leading opponent has been the novelty candidate Count Binface. Another 30-odd contenders have also thrown their multicolored hats into the ring. What was supposed to be a contest between Farage and “the elites” has turned into something of a farce.
Meanwhile, Reform has been dropping in the opinion polls thanks to the “Burnham Bounce:” a boost for Labour from the ascension last month of its new prime minister, Andy Burnham. Burnham has hit the ground running, issuing a flurry of policy announcements and staging a wide range of media events.
After leading the polls for nearly two years, Farage’s Reform UK party is now (marginally) behind Labour. But Reform’s support remains strong, and elections expert Sir John Curtice has called Burnham’s apparent aversion to an early election “unsurprising.”
One wonders, therefore, why Farage took this extraordinary step of exploring an alliance with the most hardline mainstream politician in the UK. Since it was created a year ago, after Lowe was expelled from Reform after bullying allegations, Restore Britain has been taking some support from Reform, but not much. Its candidate in the recent Makerfield by-election, for example, secured only 8 percent of the vote.
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By appearing to ally with Restore, Farage has allowed Labour and the liberal establishment to paint him with the ethnonationalist brush. This could lead to the loss of many centrist voters who were supporting Reform because it was the only party to seriously question mass migration.
Farage this week announced a new immigration policy, “Operation Fortress,” which proposed using the Royal Navy to return migrants crossing the Channel in rubber boats back to France. The French authorities have made clear they think this would be illegal, and the British Navy doesn’t sound too keen either, so the policy looks unlikely to survive.
Reform UK’s rise in the past two years has been sensational. But like Icarus, Nigel Farage may have flown too high, too fast. At any rate, his enemies in the establishment parties and media are celebrating his apparent fall to earth.
