Nigel Farage is back. Did he ever go away? Apart from Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, Farage is the most consequential politician of the last 50 years, although of course he has never been an MP. He is a renegade nationalist conservative with broad cross-class appeal who is utterly contemptuous of the Conservative Party. A brilliant communicator and relentless agitator, he emerged from the fringes of the hard right to command the centre of the political scene. He understands the power of social media and uses it more effectively than any other British politician. He is an accomplished broadcaster and the star turn on GB News. He created a movement – the so-called people’s army – and two political parties: the Brexit Party and Reform UK, of which he is now leader and chief executive, having ousted Richard Tice. He has possibly learned the art of complete control from Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell, the husband-and-wife team who ran the SNP – until they suddenly didn’t. The marginalisation of Tice was vintage Farage. As Ken Livingstone used to say: “There are no permanent friendships in politics.”
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