Thomas – LVI
Nigel Farage is undeniably a hugely influential figure right now in British politics. His Reform UK party is leading the polls at 27% whilst only having 5 seats, demonstrating their obvious recent popularity fueled by Farage’s distinct political presence, attracting the support of many. This will be discussing whether he is fit to be prime minister of the UK, touching on his scandals, party leadership history, and if his characteristics limit him to only being a good opposition. This blog will compare him with the key characteristics of a good leader; honesty, decisiveness, accountability, empathy and the ability to unite the people.
Firstly, Farage has recently been involved in a serious scandal where 26 of his old peers and one ex-teacher from Dulwich School have publicly accused him of racist, antisemitic and fascist behaviour as they recount him verballing abusing Jewish, black and asian students by using racist taunts and alleged praise for fascist leaders. He has been quoted saying “Hitler was right about the jews” and “gas them”. Alan Sked, the founder of UKIP, alleged that Farage habitually used the N-word in 1997 when discussing politics. If these allegations are accurate, they reveal a deeply troubling side to Farage, suggesting a leadership style more authoritarian than democratic, and a mindset that could threaten equality and social cohesion in the UK. With this fascist ideology it could lead to backwards thinking and social development throughout the country with oppression being normalised and equality being disregarded, a completely different direction that the UK is currently taking, therefore showing that if farage did get into power the immediate change would be shocking and unwanted for many.
Despite these controversies, Farage is undoubtedly an experienced politician that has been influential to the UK today. He started his career with the conservative party between 1993-99, but left over disagreements with the EU. Following this, he became a Member of the European parliament (MEP) for the south east of England, representing the newly formed UK independence party (UKIP) this gave him media exposure due to his speeches and TV appearances, using the European parliament as a “soapbox” for making dramatic of controversial speeches to grab the media’s attention. He then was leader of UKIP where he campaigned for BREXIT, forcing the conservatives to put an EU referendum in their manifesto to keep their majority, resulting in the British public deciding to leave the EU with 52% voting yes. This was a huge success for Farage as his UKIP party forced the referendum therefore was decisive in the whole BREXIT era. This would demonstrate his decisiveness as leader of his party, a characteristic which the UK public is crying out for right now, after the constant changing of information leading up to the recent budget by Rachel Reeves, poorly reflecting the leadership of Keir Starmer. This decisiveness and ability to influence national politics shows he knows how to lead a movement – just not necessarily a country.
Now, Farage is leader of his new Reform UK party where he is trying to be a strong, honest figure which the UK citizens can rely on and is trying to unite the people by addressing the common wish of stopping illegal migration into the UK. He is publicly expressing his polarised view on immigration which is attracting many voters currently, resulting in Reform UK leading the poles.
However, his reliance on single-issue politics raises doubts about how he would handle the wide-ranging responsibilities of government. Would he be able to make thoughtful decisions across health, education, the economy, and foreign policy, or would his focus remain narrow, guided more by populist instincts than by what’s best for the country? Another reason for him possibly being a better opposition leader is due to his fast witty responses and memorable quotes like, “You all laughed at me, well I have to say your not laughing now.” This leads to his popular comments gaining the attention of a younger audience through social media, therefore a change in regular political beliefs coming through as these children grow up and can vote.
Overall, Farage has shown that he is a popular figure in UK politics and I believe has the ability and momentum to possibly get a majority in government for Reform UK or more likely a coalition with a party like the conservatives. But personally, Farage is not the right person to be prime minister of the nation due to his controversial, more extreme political figure and policies, where he is gaining support through single issue policies, which just provides uncertainty on his actions for all of the other matters that parliament will have to deal with. His trump like figure is addressing the public want for a strong political leader with many not caring much more. I believe Farage will get a lot of the vote due to an under informed group of voters that will then be shocked and regretful on their vote if Farage gets into power and starts passing through bills on different policies that they were not informed/educated on leading to a more extremist government than has been present since the post war period, therefore leading to major unwanted change and the downfall of the UK. Farage is best suited as a loud, opinionated opposition figure – someone who can shake up debates but not run the country.