As Nigel Farage continues to bounce

Almost a year ago, Nigel Farage seemed ready to keep British politics. “I want to be a Member The ex -Brexit Campaign thought.

Shortly afterwards, he announced that he would not stay in the UK’s general election because he was too busy helping Donald Trump to win the United States presidency.

But Farage, so often, invested the course. Ended up winning the Clacton seat in Essex in 2024. The amazing performance of his reformist party in the United Kingdom to Thursday’s local election He now suggests that he can go further, ending as the British leader of the opposition or even the Prime Minister.

No other modern British politician cannot coincide with Farage’s bankruptcy for regeneration. While other Trump allies such as Canada’s Stone and Australia Peter DuttonThey have melted due to their proximity to the President of the United States, Farage. A heavy smoker and drinker with a headache for three -year -old lunches, the 61 -year -old is somehow the great survivor.

Fifteen years ago this week, Farage almost died on a plane, when the tail of a light aircraft used for a campaign acrobatics was wrapped in a banner of the United Kingdom’s independence party that was Tirant. The accident left him in serious pain for years.

Politically, Farage survived several internal battles and attempts by six conservative leaders to destroy it. However, even when the cause of UKIP obtained ground, the former metal merchant was frustrated to “have to deal with low -degree people every day” and the impossibility of earning worthy money.

He retired from the party policy on several occasions, included after the Brexit referendum in 2016 (“I want to return my life”) and again in 2021 when Britain officially left the EU (“It is over …” I have achieved the only thing I proposed to do: to achieve independence from the United Kingdom “).

He found new vehicles: after leaving UKIP, he established the Brexit party and then reformed. He recently spoiled from a call from Elon Musk to replace him as the reform leader and won an internal battle with one of the other deputies, Rupert Lowe. He has also resisted the fall of his support for Trump, which is deeply unpopular in Britain.

Perhaps Farage’s election career would have been really completed if the conservative party had unleashed it after the Brexit referendum.

“The largest political error made by the establishment in the last twenty years was not to give -a Peerege in 2016,” said Gawain Towler, a former Farage consultant.

“I would not have been able to establish the Brexit party if he were in the house of the Lords … Due to his own despite his own and his gaze, they left him free. O boy, they regret now.”

Farage’s resilience owes something to national circumstances, something to his opponents and something to his own gifts.

Has the ability to speak directly and attractive, sometimes with Humor bokeish. He often manages to seem to have fun. In a manifestation of victories in Kent on Friday, he joked whether, given the previous lack of women’s reform nominations, he had a woman’s problem: “I have had this problem all my life!”

Its charisma has been especially remarkable since the departure of the Boris Johnson’s front -line policy, the former conservative prime minister and, to a lesser extent, Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labor leader, who had the ability to draw crowds. Neither Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister or the conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, have the ease of Farage in front of the camera.

“She is very, very fortunate in her opponents,” said Towler. In the 2024 election, “part of the reason we did is that the press was so grateful that they had something fun to write, instead of (Rishi) Sunak towards Starmer.”

Slow growth and increase in immigration have expanded the public for the radical message of Farage. His estimate of the Conservative Party (whom he was a member of Margaret Thatcher) has allowed him to evade the blame for the chaotic reality of the Brexit.

A paradox of the Britain’s Britain’s party system is that a large majority of voters say that Brexit was a mistake, but the pro-Brexit reform of Farage leads the ballot box.

The changing environment also benefits the strip. For years, Farage critics attracted the BBC’s attention. But now he has other points of sale: he is a first -time gb news presenter, the Upstart News Channel that reaches viewers of 3 million per month and has a strong presence in Tiktok, where his immigration videos and preparation bands can accumulate more than 300,000 views.

After years of trying, Farage seems to have reconciled his political and financial ambitions. Since its election last July, it has stated £ 864,000 in external work payments, including £ 331,400 to present GB and £ 280,500 news to promote a gold traction company.

Moderate politicians have found it difficult to portray Farage as a Thatcherite out of tone. With the fall of Brexit and Trump, these critics have at least new material. Starmer has mocked Farage to travel to the United States so often that he should be “in” immigration statistics. ”

In the past, Farage has been alive at the risks of international allies. He did not sit, for example, with France leader Marine Le Pen in the European Parliament.

Its current strategy is to disagree with Trump on foreign policy issues, such as Ukraine, but embrace the domestic agenda, which can resonate with angry British voters. “We have a British doge!” He told the rally on Friday, referring to Musk’s cost cutting team.

Its rhetoric is still dividing. He recently criticized politicians for Muslim festivals, but not Easter: “No one seems to want to stand and say that this is a Christian holiday. Well, I say.”

It remains among the most unpopular British politicians in general: 27 percent of the voters have a favorable opinion on him, and 65 percent unfavorable, according to Yougov surveys.

If the results of the Thursday’s election were extrapolated to the whole country, the reform would have won about 30 percent of the vote, compared to 20 percent work, the 17 percent liberals, the 15 and the Greens at 11, the BBC projected. At this level of support, the first voting system of the first place that Farage has had historically could push it to power.

Farage is a younger year than Starmer and a year older than Boris Johnson. If the next election was held in mid -2019, the last possible date, Farage would be 65 years.

If he won, he would be the first Prime Minister to enter from Winston Churchill in 1951. He would also be a member of the Westminster Parliament for a shorter period than any Prime Minister in recent times. Everything would be very unlikely, just as many other parts of Farage CV.