It has been a bruising end to the election campaign for Reform UK, said Stephen Bush in the FT.
Nigel Farage has attracted flak for asserting in an interview that the West "provoked" Russia into invading Ukraine. And his party has been hit by a string of embarrassing news reports about its supporters.
Last week it distanced itself from a volunteer canvasser who had been filmed by an undercover Channel 4 reporter making offensive comments. Andrew Parker had called Rishi Sunak a "f**king P***", and suggested that the Army should use migrants arriving on British beaches for target practice. Over the weekend, Reform disowned three candidates over other offensive remarks.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Collectively, these stories have generated "the worst headlines in the party's brief existence". But since Reform UK is largely targeting older voters, many of whom are likely to have already voted by post, the impact may be limited.
Lib Dems' 'patron saint'
Despite the fuss over his "Putin-sympathising language", Farage looks on track to "turn British politics upside-down" once again, said Fraser Nelson in The Spectator. By splitting the conservative vote, Reform will gift seats to the other opposition parties and devastate the Tories.
The Lib Dems are predicted to win Salisbury, which has been Tory for a century, and could even claim Tunbridge Wells, which has voted Tory for even longer. "Farage has become our patron saint," says one Lib Dem strategist. "He can do more for our chances than we can. Our guys should really dress up [like] his and campaign for Reform."
The voice of voter discontent
Farage has been tormenting the Tories for 14 years, said Freddie Hayward in The New Statesman. After the election, he'll become Labour's problem, too. No other politician in Britain can match him when it comes to getting a message across and enthusing supporters.
Although many of his backers are older, he has been attracting growing support from the young. Reform UK polls higher than the Tories with 18- to 25-year-olds. "Farage has 804,000 followers on TikTok, compared with Labour's 207,000 and the Tories' 67,000."
The difference between Farage's campaign and those of the main parties has been striking, said John Crace in The Guardian. While Sunak and Keir Starmer "have gone out of their way to meet as few members of the public as possible – one or two strictly controlled photo ops a day", Farage has held old-fashioned rallies. His plans, to the extent that he has revealed any, don't bear much examination, but he does know how to give voice to people's discontent. Next week, in all likeliness, he will have a seat in Parliament. "Don't say you haven't been warned."
-
Homo Floresiensis: Earth’s real life ‘hobbits’Under the Radar New research suggests that ‘early human pioneers’ in Australia interbred with archaic species of hobbits at least 60,000 years ago
-
Homes by renowned architectsFeature Featuring a Leonard Willeke Tudor Revival in Detroit and modern John Storyk design in Woodstock
-
Looming drone ban has farmers and farm-state Republicans anxiousIN THE SPOTLIGHT As congressional China-hawks work to limit commercial drone sales from Beijing, a growing number of conservative lawmakers are sounding an agricultural alarm
-
The military: When is an order illegal?Feature Trump is making the military’s ‘most senior leaders complicit in his unlawful acts’
-
Ukraine and Rubio rewrite Russia’s peace planFeature The only explanation for this confusing series of events is that ‘rival factions’ within the White House fought over the peace plan ‘and made a mess of it’
-
The US-Saudi relationship: too big to fail?Talking Point With the Saudis investing $1 trillion into the US, and Trump granting them ‘major non-Nato ally’ status, for now the two countries need each other
-
Nigel Farage: was he a teenage racist?Talking Point Farage’s denials have been ‘slippery’, but should claims from Reform leader’s schooldays be on the news agenda?
-
Tariffs: Will Trump’s reversal lower prices?Feature Retailers may not pass on the savings from tariff reductions to consumers
-
American antisemitismFeature The world’s oldest hatred is on the rise in U.S. Why?
-
Trump: Is he losing control of MAGA?Feature We may be seeing the ‘first meaningful right-wing rebellion against autocracy of this era’
-
US government shutdown: why the Democrats ‘caved’In the Spotlight The recent stalemate in Congress could soon be ‘overshadowed by more enduring public perceptions’
