huffingtonpost - 2 days ago

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is currently riding high.Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Reform UK only has five MPs.With Nigel Farage’s party continuing to enjoy a healthy lead in the opinion polls, both Labour and the Tories seem to be engaged in a battle to outdo one another in their attempts to win back Reform-curious voters.From immigration to Net Zero, issues which have been central to Farage’s political outlook for years are now being campaigned on by one or both of the established parties.A day after Reform pledged to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) status for immigrants, home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the government would be tightening the rules around it, albeit stopping short of outright abolition.In an attempt to deter asylum seekers from trying to cross the English Channel in small boats, Keir Starmer announced he wanted to make it harder for them to get the “golden ticket” of British citizenship for them and their families.Tory leader Kemi Badenoch went even further at the party’s annual conference, pledging to end the UK’s commitment to Net Zero and also come out of the European Convention on Human Rights – policies which Farage has long campaigned on.Zia Yusuf, Reform’s former chairman and now its policy chief, is fond of proclaiming on social media that Farage will be the UK’s next prime minister.Given Labour and the Tories’ apparent determination to ape many of his party’s policies, it is reasonable to ask whether he is already in post.Chris Hopkins, political research director at pollsters Savanta, believes Starmer and Badenoch are wasting their time.He said: “Labour and Conservative antidotes to Reform UK have been to try to address the concerns of voters that have left the traditional big two parties and are telling pollsters they’ll vote for Farage’s insurgent party instead. But this has consequences.“The current political debate is all being fought on Nigel Farage’s lawn, where he feels completely at ease and has based his entire political career. It is therefore extremely difficult - I’d argue impossible - to out-Farage Farage, with voters less likely to plump for an imitation when they can vote for the real deal.”To be fair to Kair Starmer, he did use his speech to the Labour Party conference last month by seeking to put clear red water between what he said was the “decency” of his party and the “division” of Reform.Hopkins said: “It does show who Labour considers its true opponent, and further plunges the Conservatives into irrelevance and struggling to determine which voters to go after.”Journalist and broadcaster Tim Montgomerie, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform, said Farage “has a knack for understanding the public mood”. “We are seeing a revolution in politics around the world - the populist revolt that put Trump in power the first time and made Brexit happen is still going on,” he told HuffPost UK.“Farage gets it and the rest of the political establishment are catching up.“What Reform is standing for is what successful political parties around the world will be standing for – control of immigration, pointing out that Net Zero is too expensive and that manufacturing needs to be reshored in this country. I could go on.“The established political parties have up until now said everything will return to normal, but the populist vote is continuing to go up.”However, Montgomerie said it was far too early to write off the other parties – especially Labour.He said: “The one thing that Labour has is time. They still have got four years in which they could address these things.”Keir Starmer used his conference speech to attack Farage.Farage’s march to actual power is far from inevitable, of course.His recent refusal to distance himself from Robert F Kennedy Jr’s claim that taking paracetamol in pregnancy can cause autism drew widespread criticism, as did Reform’s threat to deport immigrants who have lived in the UK for decades.Luke Tryl, executive director of the More in Common think-tank, said Farage would be well advised to ditch any attempts to import the politics of his friend Donald Trump to the UK.He said: “Reform may be guilty of making the mistake of assuming that Britain is the same as the US, or that social media reflects broader British public opinion.“For example, Britons have a higher level of trust in public health advice, vaccines and scientists. Polling consistently suggests that Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in the UK, far more so than Nigel Farage.“Even among those who have switched to Reform since 2024, Trump has a minus 13 favourability. Among voters as a whole, Farage’s relationship with Trump is the biggest barrier to backing Reform.”Labour, meanwhile, insist they are more interested in highlighting Farage’s flaws than in aping his policies.A party source said: “Nigel Farage continues to peddle anger and division, but he has no answers to the challenges faced by working people across Britain.“Take his recent announcement on indefinite leave to remain. A proposal to deport people who have played by the rules and settled here for decades - ripping apart families and communities. That’s not a patriotic policy - it’s all about grievance.“Labour ministers are rolling up their sleeves and doing the hard graft. We know the public won’t feel all the benefits of that immediately, but some of this work is already helping families.“We’ll keep going with the difficult work and contrast that with Reform at every opportunity. Because Britain deserves better than Farage’s Reform.”There is no doubt, however, that Farage currently occupies the box seat in British politics.Should Reform’s current lead in the polls convert to victory at the ballot box in Scotland, Wales and across England next May, Labour and the Tories will have to go back to the drawing board.Related... Beyond Cruel : Woman Who Has Been In UK For 25 Years Slams Farage Deportation PlanLBC Presenter Mocks Nigel Farage s Claim Starmer Is Inciting Violence Against HimDavid Lammy Forced To Climb Down After Accusing Nigel Farage Of Flirting With Hitler Youth

Latest News

Hashtags:   

Labour

 | 

Tories

 | 

Turning

 | 

Right

 | 

Nigel

 | 

Farage

 | 

Already

 | 

Prime

 | 

Minister

 | 

Sources