Nigel farage

Yesterday

Clair Holden

On the hunt for corruption at Reform party conference

From our UK edition

As seen in the Guardian It’s the end of the hottest summer in British history, and the business reception at Reform conference is in full swing. Disaster capitalists schmooze with reactionary Cambridge theologians and tech bros over canapés and flutes of prosecco. Presiding over all is a grinning Nigel Farage, face bathed in the lurid purple--pink light of the VIP lounge as he works the crowd. And in a corner is your humble correspondent. I’ve come on short notice, standing in for Anna Isaac, an old Tab chum who has been blocked thanks to her no-holds-barred investigative journalism. My assignment? To lift the stone and find the dark money crawling underneath. And what better place to look than here, where a pact between populism and the private sector is being brokered?

Friday

Tim Shipman

Revealed: the feuding at the heart of Reform

If Tolstoy had written about British politics, he might have noted: “Happy parties are all alike; every unhappy party is unhappy in its own way.” Reform UK is beginning to resemble a laboratory test for the idea that every party run by Nigel Farage is unhappy in the same way. Just as in UKIP and the Brexit party, a highly dominant leader exists at the center of a court, with extreme tensions between loyalist long-marchers and arrivistes, between insurgency and respectability, between campaigning and preparing for government. A new round of bloodletting erupted on August 17, when the founder of ConservativeHome, Tim Montgomerie, who defected to Reform two years ago, was suspended following public criticism of Farage and the party’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf.

reform

Wednesday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: barbecues are banned, Burnham is fooled and Farage wins Clacton

From our UK edition

Home The temperature reached 38.1ºC at Kew Gardens, Surrey. In the West Midlands a wildfire at Stourbridge burnt down 19 houses and damaged 18. The government sent out a loud siren sound and a message to all mobiles in England and Wales warning of a ‘very high risk of wildfires’. So-called Statutory Guidelines temporarily banned the sale of disposable barbecues. More than 8,000 South East Water customers in Kent found supplies disrupted. A burst water main cut off travel by road between Heathrow’s terminals. Two passengers were seriously injured when three carriages of a train from London Victoria to Eastbourne were derailed and fell onto their sides near Lewes. A train from Southend to London Liverpool Street was derailed at Wickford.

Tim Shipman

Revealed: the feuding at the heart of Reform

If Tolstoy had written about British politics, he might have noted: ‘Happy parties are all alike; every unhappy party is unhappy in its own way.’ Reform UK is beginning to resemble a laboratory test for the idea that every party run by Nigel Farage is unhappy in the same way. Just as in Ukip and the Brexit party, a highly dominant leader exists at the centre of a court, with extreme tensions between loyalist long marchers and arrivistes, between insurgency and respectability, between campaigning and preparing for government. On Monday a new round of bloodletting erupted, when the founder of ConservativeHome, Tim Montgomerie, who defected to Reform two years ago, was suspended following his public criticism of Farage and the home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf.

Wednesday

Tim Shipman

Politicians’ contempt for the press is contempt for the public

From our UK edition

I was hacked by the Chinese a few years ago. Security at News UK, where I was employed on the Sunday Times, told around 20 journalists that our emails had been compromised. An agency of the Chinese state was searching for information on our coverage of Chinese issues, including Beijing’s crushing of Hong Kong and the decision to sanction members of parliament. To be honest, I’d have been pretty offended if I hadn’t been on the list. Frankly, if the Chinese want to know what I know, they can take out a subscription to The Spectator, just as they could have bought a copy of the Sunday Times. But this is what you expect from the Chinese, isn’t it?

George Brandis

Why Nigel Farage’s ‘Australia-style’ border policy is doomed to fail

From our UK edition

When I served as Australia’s High Commissioner in London, I was naturally flattered by how often British politicians and officials invoked Australian precedents as examples of successful policy. Nowhere was that more evident than with immigration and border control. The ‘Australian-style points system’ became a cliché for describing best-practice migration policy. I remember a meeting with the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, who frankly – and not a little ruefully – told me: ‘Whenever we want to get the public to think something is a good policy, all we have to do is put the prefix “Australian-style” in front of it.

The Spectator

Nigel Farage’s hollow victory

From our UK edition

Nigel Farage’s victory in the Clacton by-election is a hollow one. The major parties boycotted the contest: of the Reform leader’s 33 opponents, the most prominent was a screenwriter with a bin on his head. This by-election was not forced on Farage by the parliamentary investigation into undeclared donations – this can resume as soon as he returns to the Commons – but called as an attempt to regain momentum after a difficult patch for Reform. That gambit has failed. In August last year, Reform was riding high. Opposing an unpopular Labour government and a Conservative party in disarray, Farage capitalised on historic victories in the local elections and deep public anger at ‘uniparty’ failures over small boats and living standards.

Thursday

James Heale

‘He’s either the Messiah – or the Antichrist’: on the campaign trail with Nigel Farage

“We love you, Nigel!” In Clacton-on-Sea, there is little sign that the Reform leader’s star has waned. Campaigning with Nigel Farage here is a burst of cackles, quips, nicotine and selfies: a march through sun-kissed streets with a cast of canvassers, aides and minders. A child clasping a teddy bear dances around, a Reform rosette pinned to her top; a groaning assistant clutches two dozen poster boards. On the doors in Seawick there is near-universal support, with variations on the theme which Farage has made his campaign slogan: “I’m with Nigel.” In the middle of silly season, Clacton is hosting one of Britain’s most bizarre by-elections.

nigel farage

Wednesday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Drought declared, Manchester elects new mayor and 70,000 enter Ceuta 

From our UK edition

Home In 19 English counties 1mm or less rain fell in July. Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, said that yields of wheat and oats were ‘very, very poor’. Fire affected 375 acres of Suffolk at Dunwich Heath. Shell agreed to sell its European onshore renewables arm, including solar farms, to France’s TotalEnergies. BP’s profits rose to the highest since 2022, after the war in the Middle East pushed up oil prices. BP put its UK offshore oil and gas business up for sale. A trial by researchers at King’s College London started recruiting 220 children aged 11 to 16 to assess puberty blockers after the High Court rejected a legal challenge.

Wednesday

James Heale

‘He’s either the Messiah – or the Antichrist’: on the campaign trail with Nigel Farage

‘We love you, Nigel!’ In Clacton-on-Sea, there is little sign that the Reform leader’s star has waned. Campaigning with Farage here is a burst of cackles, quips, nicotine and selfies: a march through sun-kissed streets with a cast of canvassers, aides and minders. A child clasping a teddy bear dances around, Reform’s rosette pinned to her top; a groaning assistant clutches two dozen poster boards. On the doors in Seawick, there is near-universal support, with variations on the theme which Farage has made his campaign slogan: ‘I’m with Nigel.’ In the middle of silly season, Clacton is hosting one of Britain’s most bizarre by-elections.

Wednesday

Michael Gove

I was targeted by a killer – but I’m still against more security for MPs

Reason, David Hume noted, is a slave of the passions. Arguments, especially political crusades, are often rooted in emotional responses, with the evidence assembled to justify a position which is heartfelt but often wrongheaded. So it is with the cry, from politicians, for more steps to be taken to safeguard the personal security of politicians. The killing of Ann Widdecombe, like the deaths of Jo Cox and David Amess, has generated new demands for action, and legislation, to protect those in public life from risk and danger. The transparent nobility of Ann’s life and the grotesque tragedy of her death make it emotionally difficult to resist the call for strengthened perimeters around our politicians.

Red Squirrel

Restore’s unstoppable rise to power

From our UK edition

As seen on X ‘Subversive.’ With this word I sign off my vitriolic X reply to Beth Rigby, who has once again failed to endorse Restore Britain live on Sky News. With the monthly online-right Folkmoot taking place this afternoon at the Boar’s Head on Stockport high street, a show of force like this would be essential in rallying the troops. For the troops were wavering. Rupert Lowe has been making a series of alarming gaffes of late – distancing himself from ethnic nationalism, and indeed, national socialism. It came as a great shock to us that this 68-year-old business associate of Rishi Sunak’s wife and personal friend of much of the Conservative front bench had failed to endorse either of these platforms.

Peter Jones

Does Nigel Farage think he’s above scrutiny?

From our UK edition

If Nigel Farage is so confident that the £5 million donation he received from a friend is entirely kosher, why is he so frightened of being subjected to the official parliamentary code of conduct on the matter, or does he think he is above such scrutiny? That is a dangerous tightrope to tread. In 406 bc, after a naval battle in the long war between Sparta and Athens, a ferocious storm prevented the Athenian generals from picking up their survivors and the dead. In the law-making democratic Assembly, consisting of all Athenian male citizens over 18 (the dêmos), fury was high, and there was a demand from one Callixenos that the six out of the eight generals who had returned to Athens should be tried en bloc.

The Spectator

Letters: bring on devolution

From our UK edition

The right kind of devolution Sir: Your leading article ‘The Burnham Question’ (11 July) suggests that the putative prime minister’s enthusiasm for devolution might be a good thing, provided that it is the right kind of devolution. Although Andy Burnham would never admit it, devolution of the Manchester and Teesside type succeeds because, in both cases, business is given the chance to thrive. By contrast, devolution to the Scottish parliament and Senedd has stifled economic growth, while providing a platform for nationalist politicians to bash the UK. A true believer in effective devolution would scrap these national institutions and transfer power to business-friendly bodies in cities and regions across the UK.

Thomas Munson

The problem with Farage’s blue suits

From our UK edition

Count Binface has never lacked ambition. Nigel Farage’s only challenger in the Clacton by-election has, over the years, promised to cap the price of croissants at £1.10, nationalise Adele and build at least one affordable house. Admirable though these causes may be, however, the self-proclaimed ‘intergalactic space warrior’ has overlooked one national emergency. If he truly wants to leave Britain – or indeed Earth – in a better place than he found it, he should use this campaign to outlaw the royal blue suit from politics. The royal blue suit has spread through Westminster with the invasiveness of Japanese knotweed. Farage has embraced it with particular enthusiasm.

Wednesday

Charles Moore

Prince Harry and Nigel Farage have more in common than they might like to admit

From our UK edition

At about 2 p.m. on Tuesday, two cases with a common characteristic coincided. One was Nigel Farage’s long statement about why he would resign his seat to fight a by-election. The other was the defeat of the privacy action against the Daily Mail brought by Prince Harry and others. The link is not in content, but in attitude. In both cases, the main actors in the drama are paranoid and solipsistic. Mr Farage, trying to deflect questions about the men who give him money, spoke for about 20 minutes of the wrongs done him by the ‘Establishment’ and the media. He was particularly worked up about his security. The Prince’s case was that he had been intruded upon by dark and powerful media forces. It was all mixed up with his resentments against his father the King and his courtiers.

Helen D’Vorcee

Why doesn’t my daughter enjoy bonking?

From our UK edition

As seen in the Times ‘You young people, I don’t even know where to start!’ My phone call to my daughter Isabel is entering its 40th minute. ‘You’re all too busy donning keffiyehs these days to do any BONKING. ‘When I was your age, it was snogging to Duran Duran all night, then onto the couch for an hour’s kip, then into the office for a full day’s work at the PR agency or Tatler or wherever I was then… the point is there was no whingeing, just working hard and having a bloody good time.’ I then ask about Tom, Izzy’s long-term boyfriend, but interrupt with another harangue: ‘The thing is, Tom is very sweet.

Douglas Murray

What Farage can learn from the anti-Trump playbook

In January this year Dominic Cummings – once of this parish – warned The Spectator’s editor and assistant editor that Whitehall and the establishment parties would ‘stop at nothing’ to prevent Nigel Farage from becoming prime minister. As Cummings told the Quite right! podcast: ‘The people around [Keir] Starmer and all through the upper echelons of the Whitehall system are looking at Donald Trump. They’re looking across Europe, and they’re saying to themselves: “The lesson is to strike early and strike hard and not let these people in… Let’s smash the absolute living shit out of Farage, and make sure that he doesn’t win, by fair means or foul.

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

Will the ‘anti-Trump playbook’ work in Britain?

Commentators were so busy fulminating against Trump’s FIFA shenanigans yesterday they mostly missed his intervention in the big story now roiling British politics. "They’re Running the 2024 Anti-Trump Playbook on Nigel Farage," the President posted on Truth Social, linking to an article on the National Pulse, an American media site founded by Farage’s old mucker Raheem Kassam. The point, now being repeated by Reform’s talking heads on TV, is clear. "They" – the SW1 elite – are trying to stop Nigel Farage, just as the Washington establishment mounted a ridiculously elaborate lawfare campaign to try to stop Donald Trump.

Wednesday

Tim Shipman

Reform is right to fear the return of Boris

From our UK edition

The man from Reform had barely sat down at our table at the French bistro when he leant forward conspiratorially and asked: ‘What’s Boris up to?’ The suspicion that Boris Johnson, Britain’s 55th premier, must be up to something is a familiar one. For the first time in several years, however, the question is interesting. And the fact that Reform is raising it gives a small insight into the current state of politics. The query came just hours after Johnson had taken to Instagram to mark the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, the defining moment of his career and of our politics since. The 17.4 million voters who backed the Leave campaign were right to do so, he said, before going on to hail the freedoms of Brexit.