What is ‘fag packet politics’ and why has Nigel Farage been accused of it?
Nigel Farage has been accused of “back of a fag packet politics” this week in setting out Reform’s plan for deportations, should the party win the next election.
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The right-wing figurehead is known for his love of cigarettes but the accusation is actually related to the announcements he made to supporters at a conference on Tuesday.
Mr Farage announced plans for mass deportations of asylum seekers and immigrants, claiming the party would deport 600,000 migrants over five years if it came to power.
According to the Reform leader, the proposals would cost an estimated £10 billion.
But while Mr Farage said that his head of efficiency Zia Yusuf has fully costed the effort, being “really good at maths,” others were skeptical as to what was being proposed.
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What is 'fag packet politics'?
Home Office minister Lord Hanson Reform’s plans are "uncosted, unconstructed" and "won't be very effective".
"Nigel Farage's plan, such as it is, could have been written on the back of a fag packet, is very uncosted and unconstructed, and it's not really going to be very effective and it's not really a plan that is deliverable,” he said.
The jovial phrase was then repeated by Labour minister Matthew Pennycook, who said the plans were like “something put together on the back of a fag packet”.
“It’s back of the fag packet stuff isn’t it, really?” caller Ian told The Nick Ferrari Breakfast Show.
“[The election] is four years away, and he can promise the earth.”
The colloquial phrase “back of the fag packet” connotes a plan that has not been measured or drawn out beyond a brief idea jotted down in a small space - a cigarette packet in this case.
In the US, the phrase is more commonly heard as “back of the napkin,” and relates to just the first available piece of writing material that the person could find.
The cigarette variety of the term has connotations of a plan being thought up in the pub, which plays to the image of Mr Farage and Reform - which has been accused of “back of fag packet accountancy” before.
Examples of the term in action could be Elvis Presley’s manager apparently writing out the terms of the King’s Vegas residency on a table cloth.
In the fictional documentary Mike Bassett: England Manager, Ricky Tomlinson’s gaffer’s propensity to write his team selections on a cigarette packet lead to players called Benson and Hedges being called up.