It’s been a tough go lately for the controversial British politician Nigel Farage. His party’s been dropping in the polls, and he’s under investigation for failing to report a gift from a billionaire of £5 million ($6.7 million).
Last week, he resigned his seat in Parliament so that he could stand for reelection — aiming to win a vote of confidence from electors in a region that has long supported him. But the major parties are refusing to field candidates against him, turning his political gambit into a bit of a farce. A perennial candidate who likes to dress up as a garbage can may be his only election opponent.
Writing off Farage, though, would be foolish.
The British lawmaker-cum-escape artist, author of Brexit, and thorn in the side of Labour and the Tories, will soon put this dog’s breakfast behind him and rise phoenix-like to be the British prime minister in waiting. And for the good.
Despite the way much of the British media demonizes him, Farage, the leader of the right-wing populist party Reform UK, is the last best chance of survival for the United Kingdom.
The UK today does not present a pretty picture. An economy in decline. Six prime ministers in a decade, soon to be seven when Labour’s Andy Burnham, the former Manchester mayor recently elected to Parliament, takes the place of the flailing Keir Starmer. Rampant illegal immigration. Indefensible tolerance by both major political parties of rape gangs targeting minors, for fear of offending minority groups. An unsustainable environmental policy that has sent electricity prices skyrocketing and kneecapped economic growth. Cripplingly high borrowing costs for the Exchequer. Old-age pensioners who can’t pay their heating bills. A weakened military. And a dysfunctional national health care system where you have to wait forever to get your tonsils out.
Farage to the rescue?
To put it lightheartedly, if Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump had a baby who liked beer and babes, he’d be Nigel Farage. Farage is Reaganesque in that he’s a great communicator. Watch any off-the-cuff talk by him on YouTube and be dazzled by his eloquence. He’s also Reagan-like in that he doesn’t have to take polls to decide his political positions. He knows what he wants, polls be damned.
Like Trump, he’s a wealthy businessman who came to politics later in life, disgusted with the status quo. He’s also Trump-like in that few can remain neutral about him and the left despises him.
The Guardian frequently describes him as racist, xenophobic, and far right. The Independent calls him an “anti-immigration firebrand.” The Daily Mirror has played up criticism of his party as “dangerous” and “divisive.“ And perhaps the biggest insult of all: The newspapers compare him to Donald Trump.
They’re running scared because Farage threatens all that the British left holds dear. He stands against socialism, unrestricted illegal immigration, and net-zero environmentalism. His Reform Party came from seemingly nowhere and is on the verge of rubbishing the UK’s traditional two-party system. In short, he’s riding a wave of populist fury at the political classes who have driven Britain’s economy, safety, and culture into the ground.
Farage comes from a comfortable middle-class background, made a pot of money as a trader in London in the 1980s, and witnessed firsthand as a member of the European Parliament the Continent’s economic and cultural surrender to leftist politics. He despaired of European socialism and spearheaded Brexit so that UK voters would end European taxation without representation. (That has a ring to it, doesn’t it?)
You have to be an Anglophile, a trivia buff, and a masochist to name all six of Britain’s recent prime ministers. One after another, they wafted into 10 Downing Street on clouds of glory and quickly sank into failure and ignominy. The latest entry, Starmer, blundered his way out of office by tying himself to the Jeffrey Epstein mess, flip-flopping on key issues, and being a total if well-meaning bore.
His successor, Burnham, more telegenic than the colorless Starmer (a British Gavin Newsom, if you will), is a mayor, not a magician. He has no tools in his toolbox and no cash in the till for fixing what ails Britain. You don’t need a Ouija board to predict Burnham’s future. Big promises, no money to pay for them, everyone angry, thank you, and good night. Exit Starmer, enter Burnham; exit Burnham, enter Farage.
Donald Trump won twice because people sensed that traditional politicians didn’t care about the needs of ordinary people. Trump was a middle finger to the business-as-usual pols who long ago had abandoned flyover country. Farage is exactly the same, which is why his Reform Party has been siphoning off voters from both the Conservative and Labour parties.
The British public has a short memory. They’ll forget about the £5 million, he’ll win an even bigger majority as he reenters Parliament as the member for Clacton-on-Sea (was that locale named by Monty Python?), the guy with the trash can will find other things to do. He’ll brush off a handful of defeats for Reform in recent elections; the party still stands at the top of the national polls. And he’ll bide his time as the UK embraces and abandons Burnham.
There’s simply no one else in British politics with the worldview, and the guts, to restore Britain to sanity.
Labour and the Tories had their chances. Their day has passed. Time to bring on the wrecking ball that is Nigel Farage.