NIGEL Farage knows how to craft a moment.
At a press conference in London on Tuesday, he was asked by former Spectator editor Fraser Nelson whether he really believed he would be Britain’s next prime minister.
Nelson is making a documentary about Reform UK, and the party’s leader spotted his chance to give his own introduction in the forthcoming film.
Asked if he believed he “really” believed he could go from the political fringes with just a handful of MPs all the way to No 10, Farage replied: “History would suggest the answer to your question is no; circumstances would suggest the answer is yes. Something extraordinary is happening.”
You could write much of Nelson’s opening monologue for yourself based on that answer.
How Farage plans to become Britain’s next prime minister was explained over the preceding hour or so in the form of a lengthy speech and question session with the media, which made headlines for his "poisonous" doubling down on a "racist" attack ad against Anas Sarwar.
The plan is simple. Despite accusing Labour and the Tories of having “pretty much merged”, Farage’s pitch is a syncretic mix of left and right-wing talking points that he reckons chime with Britain’s “silent majority”.
His flagship pledge is, of course, to “stop the boats” and slash immigration numbers. But at Tuesday’s press conference, he also positioned himself to the left of Labour on welfare.
Farage promised to reinstate the Winter Fuel Payment, axed by Labour, and to end the two-child benefit cap – except for immigrants.
While acknowledging the policies would be “expensive”, Farage, his eyes practically watering with patriotic tears, said the only thing he was guilty of was ambition for his country.
His opponents have reacted predictably, with shadow chancellor Mel Stride calling Reform UK’s policies “Corbynism in a different colour”, while Labour said Farage’s “fantasy promises” were “exactly how Liz Truss crashed the economy”.
During his speech, Farage romantically conjured up the image of the white van men, small business owners and grafters who make up his people; ordinary folk who are woken by their 5am alarms and crawl into bed at night after a day’s back-breaking work.
They are tired of being told “no” by career politicians they think have never done a real day’s work in their lives.
Contrary to Tory hysteria, found in Stride’s assertion that Reform are a “left-wing” party, Farage spoke of the new “great divide” in British society, between “those that get up and go to work, pay an ever increasing tax burden, feel ever more hampered by government at every level and their next door neighbours, who choose to do nothing but actually have a very similar standard of living”.
It is hardly a line that could have come from a Jeremy Corbyn speech. Nonetheless, Farage, with his cross-class coalition modelled on Donald Trump’s winning cocktail, will enjoy commentators latching onto claims he leads a party more left-wing than that of Keir Starmer.
He will also revel in being simultaneously positioned on the right of the Conservatives. It is here, in this murky ambiguity, that Farage finds his route to power.
The coalition of voters he hopes will carry him to No 10 is by no means stable.
But as long as he offers something that to many sounds like good times are here again – while his critics cry that his numbers don’t add up – Farage will continue dreaming up the opening lines for his General Election victory speech. You just know he’s drafted one already.
