Nigel Farage is on the rise again – and this is why the Tories should start to be worried
It has been a tough six months for Nigel Farage. Riding high in the early summer of 2019 after winning the EU elections, it looked for a bit like once again Farage could change the political order in a profound way. Yet the ascension of Boris Johnson to the leadership of the Conservative Party was a killer blow from which Farage is still yet to fully recover. Used to being the darling of the British right, something which flourished when Theresa May became so widely loathed, the sudden reuniting of the right under a Conservative Party banner cut his platform out from underneath him. He tried for a bit to argue that Boris Johnson’s “deal” was a bad one; that it retread a lot of May’s deal, only with the added problem of cutting Northern Ireland loose from the rest of the country. It didn’t work, with his own supporters turning on him, telling him to get behind Boris.
Eventually, he did just that, standing down the Brexit Party almost completely and allowing the Tories a clear run at getting a decent majority. But Farage has waited in the shadows since, searching for his moment to strike back, safe in the knowledge that Boris has to run the country as well as actually bring Brexit to a satisfying conclusion. Well, it looks his time might have arrived.
Farage ingeniously figured out the government’s one major weak spot during the crisis, at least as far as right-wing voters are concerned – illegal immigration. Farage going to Dover to do a report on the state of immigrants sailing across the Channel and the government’s way of handling this in the midst of the crisis has gone mega-viral in Brexitland. It is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of Farage’s genius at understanding what his audience wants; he has managed to cause a large number of natural Boris supporters to question everything about the Tory government without having to get into any critique of their handling of the crisis. Many on the right are now becoming increasingly anti-lockdown, yet Farage has wisely stayed clear of this, at least for the moment. He’s seen a better weak spot and attacked it instead.
When these Brexit supporters watch Farage’s reportage from Dover, they get angry at the government. They question not only their handling of immigration, but everything at that point. The way the crisis has been managed, including lockdown; the economy; the “threat” of an extension to the Brexit transition. Farage is taking his time with the intention of doing this right. Boris and his colleagues would be foolish to think they have banished the threat Farage poses to them forever. He could be back in a big way in British politics sooner than almost anyone would have foreseen even a month ago.
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I have a new book out now. It’s called “Politics is Murder” and follows the tale of a woman named Charlotte working at a failing think tank who has got ahead in her career in a novel way – she is a serial killer. One day, the police turn up at her door and tell her she is a suspect in a murder – only thing is, it is one she had nothing to do with. The plot takes in Conservative Party conference, a plot against the Foreign Secretary and some gangsters while Charlotte tries to find out who is trying to frame her for a murder she didn’t commit.
Also: there is a subplot around the government trying to built a stupid bridge, which now seems a charming echo of a more innocent time!
It’s available here:
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