THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant, populist agenda has helped his party, Reform U.K., emerge from the fringe of politics in Britain. But it faces an uphill climb to win power.
This screenshot has been taken from this NYT article. | Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform U.K. Party, last month at a campaign rally in Scotland ahead of British council elections. | Paul Reid/Getty Images
Until recently, Nigel Farage was the leader of small but loud political start-ups in Britain.
For decades, his anti-Europe parties sought to shift the country’s trajectory, using anti-immigrant and nationalist rhetoric to lead the Brexit campaign. But until 2024, Mr. Farage had never been elected to Parliament, and his movement remained on the fringe, unable to dislodge Britain’s two big political parties.
That is all changing.
In thousands of contests for municipal councils across England on May 7, Mr. Farage’s party, Reform U.K., surged past the Tories of Margaret Thatcher fame and grabbed control of councils from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to become, arguably, the most successful political force in the country.
In just 15 hours on Election Day, Reform won 1,454 council races and surged to victories in the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments. Now, Mr. Farage presides over a national party with reasonable ambitions to take control of Parliament in the next general election, which must be held by 2029. That would make him Britain’s next prime minister.
“We have professionalized the party,” he boasted on May 8, calling the election results “a big, big day not just for our party but for a complete reshaping of British politics in every way.”
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Michael D. Shear | Michael D. Shear writes about the fracturing of British politics and the rise of populists in the U.K. and across Europe. | Wednesday, May 27, 2026
It is to be hoped that my fellow compatriots will have the good sense not to vote into power the very man who made them heaps poorer and who robbed them of their rights as citizens of Europe. (Yes, Europe, because the EU and Europe are largely synonymous despite what the far-right loons would have you believe.) But I am not holding my breath!
Nigel Farage is a self-enriching charlatan. His guiding principle, or pole star, is himself and how he can fill his bank accounts and bolster his ego. He is a man of no sound principles. Don’t believe me? Just look at how he enriched himself over a period of about TWENTY years from the EU—from 1999 to 2020—whilst doing sod all for the money, hardly ever attending Parliament in either Brussels or Strasbourg. All the while decrying the institution, and all the while working hard behind the scenes to undermine the institution! What an unprincipled SOB he is! And my compatriots are stupid enough to vote for him!
Add to all this, Nigel Farage did Vladimir Putin’s dirty work for him. Vlad’s wet dream has been to weaken and break-up the European Union, and Farage did his bidding.
Were Farage ever to become the prime minister of this once noble country, it will be a very sad day for British democracy (whatever is left of it), and it will also be the harbinger of dark days ahead.
That he is big chums with the corrupt Trump and his chumps is a further indictment on him and casts a dark shadow on his character and intentions. It is a classic case of birds of a feather flocking together!
For the record, this country’s future lies in Europe and the European Union. It does not lie across the Atlantic with the far-right loons who govern America. Eastward ho! Ir’s written in the stars, my fellow countrymen! — © Mark Alexander
