Falling for Farage

With Reform UK’s victory in England’s recent local elections, significant – and surprising – sections of the media are also now embracing Nigel Farage’s politics. Adam Bienkov reports

When Keir Starmer called an early morning press conference to recently announce his “tighter” immigration policies, he promised to reduce migrant numbers “significantly”. Attacking his predecessors, he said that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without tough action, and that his policies would “finally take back control of our borders”. Shortly after his statement, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper gave an exclusive interview to GB News on the plans, before heading to the House of Commons to set out how the Government would stop Britain’s “one-nation experiment in open borders”.

It is not hard to imagine Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson doing the same if they were to be elected to power in 2029.

The Reform UK Leader and his party may hold just five seats in Parliament – only one more than the Greens – but, in terms of their influence over what happens in Westminster, it sometimes feels as if Farage is already calling the shots in No 10.