Just who is Nigel Farage? The good, the bad, the ugly and the sensational, his former deputy writes

5 May 2025, 10:28 | Updated: 7 May 2025, 10:23

“Who are you?” The audacity of these words addressed to the new President of the European Council made me wonder for the first time – who is Nigel Farage?

It was quite the speech. “You have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk,” the then UKIP leader bellowed at Herman van Rompuy, as uproar ensued in the European Parliament.

Farage didn’t care. He milked it.

Later he ‘apologised’ - to bank clerks for comparing them to someone as low as van Rompuy - and UKIP started selling ‘damp rag’ tea towels with van Rompuy’s face on them.

This sums up the bravado of the man with whom I was working closely four years’ later as Deputy Chair of UKIP.

I found out who Farage is, and he’s a blend of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the absolutely sensational.

You have to admire what he’s achieved through sheer dogged determination and a rebellious streak.

He’s created political earthquake after political earthquake by never giving up, despite being ridiculed by the ‘establishment’ political parties, pilloried by the press, and verbally abused and physically assaulted by members of the public.

Now, he attracts audiences of thousands and garners millions of votes, but he started his political career railing against the EU at sparsely attended rallies in village halls.

His autobiography recalls how once, no one turned up at all.

Most would have given up at that point, but not Nigel. Mocked for failing on seven occasions to become an MP, his tenacity saw him win on his eighth attempt.

His resilience and determination is astonishing: he deserves every bit of Reform’s colossal electoral success.

He is unequivocally patriotic, never afraid to defend Britain and British culture.

His knowledge of our history is encyclopaedic.

He has an excellent memory, absorbs facts, and can hold a conversation on just about anything. He’s enormous fun socially: charismatic, erudite, entertaining.

I’m often asked - is he racist? Absolutely not.

Only his enemies make this ignorant slur, from their middle-class utopian bubble, having no idea of the anger most people feel about uncontrolled immigration, illegals crossing the channel into the warm bosom of the welfare state, Government ministers dismissing rape gangs as ‘dog whistle’ politics.

Yet for someone with the hide of a rhino when facing insults, he can be remarkably thin-skinned about constructive criticism, as evidenced when he forced his former MEP Patrick O’Flynn to make a grovelling public apology for highlighting precisely this.

A seam of insecurity ripples beneath his towering stage and media presence; if he senses even a hint of ‘disloyalty’ within his top team, or feels his (quite secure) position as ‘top dog’ is threatened, he’ll turn on people in an instant.

Hence the histories of UKIP, the Brexit Party, and Reform, are replete with senior people – including myself for merely saying he is “perceived by some as being divisive” – kicked out without a second’s thought.

That has to change, because Nigel’s celebrity alone can’t carry Reform through the practicalities of electoral success.

By winning ten councils, two Mayoralties, and having a significant presence in Parliament, the party’s mostly novice representatives have taken charge of billions in public funds.

They’ll be subject to intense scrutiny and have much to prove.

Nigel is now a real contender for Downing Street, but a PM leads a Cabinet and over 100 ministers.

He must show the country he is deadly serious about the job, and that he has a team that can govern the nation.

To stay ahead himself, he must oil the wheels and let others shine, and that could be the hardest challenge he’s ever faced.

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