With Brexit’s upcoming fifth anniversary comes painful memories for many Britons. Some still grieve the UK’s departure from the EU, and many more ponder whether they had made the right call in that fateful referendum. Some, however, feel contrary, describing this chapter of British history as an era of national triumph. Nobody else believes this so vehemently as the infamous Nigel Farage.
To the chagrin of myself and others, there is no escaping him. When he’s not being laughed at for his public relations blunders or criticised for his unashamed bigotry, Farage is being praised by his disciples for inhumane, insane propositions like abandoning the ECHR. His wins haven’t slowed down with Brexit either, with the populist Reform UK Party having quintupled the number of MPs it had in Parliament in the span of only five years.
What’s more, a recent poll highlighted the public appeal of Reform, showing around 25 per cent of the Brits questioned expressing an intention to vote for Farage come 2029. For a movement so young and xenophobic, this is a cause for concern. All of this begs a frightening question: is victory within his reach?
To answer this, one must look towards Farage’s competition, the first being Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch. Although elected by her peers to mirror Nigel’s ferociously far-right ideals in the hopes of recapturing lost votes, only in one’s wildest fantasies could Badenoch achieve this. To put it indelicately, Farage’s notoriously racist crowd aren’t exactly going to fall head over heels for a second-generation Nigerian immigrant who’s embraced pro-migrant policy before.
Leftists and moderates alike may prefer Keir Starmer, whose centrist politics shine in contrast to Farage’s controversial rhetoric. Of course, this all hinges on whether voters are willing to overlook the Prime Minister’s abysmally mediocre premiership thus far. If not, balloters may take a gamble with other parties instead.
Such theorising, however, should give regard to Westminster’s “winner-takes-all” electoral system, which has an established reputation already of undermining smaller, more radical parties in favour of the more dominant Tories and Labour. With this in consideration, the notion of a Prime Minister Nigel Farage is far-fetched. Still, we mustn’t dismiss any other successes that Reform may enjoy, whether that be a slight increase in seats, the threat of Reform ousting the Tories as the opposition entirely, or perhaps even a coalition between the two groups.
Whatever the case, with Nigel Farage at the helm of a steadily growing Reform UK, things are looking rather grim for Great Britain indeed.
“Nigel Farage Trago Mills June 2024” by Owain.davies is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.