Farage’s retreat from spotlight fuels fresh doubts about Reform

THE loudest person in UK politics has suddenly gone quiet. 

Rather than exploiting the interregnum between Keir Starmer and his likely successor as prime minister, Andy Burnham, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage appears to have taken an unusual break from public appearances. 

It follows a string of election bruises for Farage, and some unprecedented scrutiny of his personal finances.

A year ago, the Brexit architect was hosting weekly press conferences in an effort to boost the profile of his upstart party and steal momentum from the Conservatives, who have traditionally dominated the right wing of UK politics.

Now, he has not held one of those since April. 

The usually ubiquitous head of poll-leading Reform is smarting from the revelation that he accepted £5 million (US$6.7 million) from Christopher Harborne, a British cryptocurrency investor, shortly before returning to the Commons in 2024’s election. 

Farage did not declare the sum, despite rules that Members of Parliament must disclose any donations received within 12 months of becoming an MP, arguing that the money was a personal gift to pay for his security.

The matter is now being investigated by parliament’s standards commissioner, and a finding against him could trigger an election in his constituency seat of Clacton, which he would be forced to contest from scratch. 

While a recent survey showed that his party polls strongly there, the i Paper earlier last week cited a source close to Farage saying he was privately worried about such an outcome. A spokesperson for his party did not respond to requests for comment.

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Problems compounding

Farage’s troubles were compounded over the weekend by a Sunday Times investigation, which uncovered several instances where he and his party appeared to have received but not declared financial benefits from George Cottrell.

The secretive 32-year-old, who has served a US prison sentence for wire fraud, is one of the Reform leader’s closest allies. Reform has said no parliamentary rules were broken in relation to Cottrell. 

The party’s Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick defended the benefits during a Sky News interview on Sunday (Jul 5). “He’s an old friend of Nigel’s and he supported him in the past before Nigel was even a Member of Parliament. He has no formal role within Reform.”

All that has Reform facing one of its most trying periods since it was launched eight years ago as the Brexit Party.

While it is hoping to prove itself a contender for government after a general election due by August 2029, and performed well in May’s local council elections in England, it has lost three recent by-elections for seats that it was aiming to win – in England’s Makerfield, Gorton and Denton, and the Welsh seat of Caerphilly. 

The competition Farage’s party faces on its right flank from rival Restore Britain was on display in the Makerfield vote.

Launched just five months ago by his former colleague Rupert Lowe, Restore has attracted far-right voters who say Reform has become too moderate and mainstream. In Makerfield, Restore scooped 6.8 per cent of the vote, behind Reform’s 34.5 per cent.

The seat was won by Burnham, the former mayor of Manchester, who used his election to a Westminster seat to rally the Labour Party around him and force Starmer’s resignation.

The shifting balance of power in the governing party could be part of what is keeping Farage silent, according to pollsters. 

“It’s really helpful to people like Nigel Farage to have the Keir and Rachel show carrying on,” said Survation’s Damian Lyons-Lowe, who said Starmer and his Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves had appeared “elitist” to many voters – a useful foil for the man-of-the-people image that Farage, a former metals trader, likes to project.

“With an Andy Burnham government, you get a chance of there being a rebranding of the Labour Party,” Lyons-Lowe said, which will force competitors to find fresh attack lines.

Farage has remained active on social media, but he is being eclipsed in views by Burnham, who will become UK prime minister on Jul 20 should he remain unopposed.

He has also been visiting allies in the US, posting a picture with American Vice-President JD Vance on Saturday with the caption: “Celebrating the relationship between Britain and America.”

Allies rally

Allies rallied around the beleaguered Reform UK leader this week, after a series of articles scrutinising his finances and compliance with ethics codes prompted him to all but disappear from public view.

Conservative defector Danny Kruger, now Reform’s head of preparations for government, said in a post on X that articles about Farage’s £5 million “gift” from a Thailand-based donor and undeclared properties were an attempt by “established power” to “disable” the right-wing party. 

Reform’s business spokesman Richard Tice called the reports “desperate”, while Raheem Kassam, a former adviser, alleged there was a “Ukraine link behind all the recent, sudden, alarmist anti-Farage activity”.

There have been signs of dissent within Reform’s ranks. David Bull, who was the party’s chairman until May, said in a recent interview that, “as a friend and colleague” of Farage, he thought the leader should take “a break” from politics amid scrutiny over the Harborne money.

In an interview with the BBC late last month – one of the rare times that Farage has recently submitted himself to media questions – the politician appeared tetchy when asked about Harborne’s £5 million donation, saying “it’s not the public’s business” to know how he spent it. He has cancelled appearances on other BBC shows.

While he did take questions at an event ahead of the Makerfield by-election last month, most of the national press were not invited.

Labour MPs have raised questions about Farage’s £4 million property portfolio, which he mostly acquired in cash. While MPs are supposed to declare any properties they own, the Reform leader has listed only two of at least five houses, based on Land Registry documents obtained by the Times. 

Reform told the paper his declarations are within the rules because one undeclared property is owned entirely by his partner, another is occupied by his daughter, while the third is owned through his company Thorn in the Side – although Farage has declared another property owned by his company, and other MPs list properties owned through corporate entities. BLOOMBERG