Nigel Farage: ‘Kemi has had the easiest ride of any Tory leader in my lifetime’

What’s so frustrating about the last three or four months is you might have got the impression of chaos but actually it’s far from it.’ It is 8.30 a.m. and Nigel Farage is 30,000 feet in the sky, clutching a bacon roll and expounding his battle plans. Napkin tucked in like a bib, the Reform MP wields a bottle of brown sauce as he bids to get ‘back on the front foot’. With him on the ten-seater plane are his two most prized Tory defectors, Robert Jenrick and Danny Kruger, trilby in hand, plotting the day ahead. Today it is Plymouth, where a third of the council seats are up for grabs in May. On the Hoe, we stroll, admiring the statues. ‘Drake!’ Farage exclaims. ‘My house at school.’ He looks out to the waves, to the Eddystone Lighthouse beyond. ‘I think I might be scattered at sea.’ His schedule is the usual mix of meet-and-greets before a speech to 450 locals. ‘Making work pay’ is the theme of his remarks. But Ann Widdecombe, a daughter of Plymouth, is at the forefront of his mind. His voice strains when he speaks of her. ‘Burnham is a say-a-lot and do-nothing PM. What has he achieved in 100 days? Cheaper bus fares’ There are two stories about Reform, Farage believes. One is about a nascent force doing the hard yards to become a mature political party; the other is the uncertain, unpleasant and sometimes embarrassing steps along the way. Understandably, only one narrative currently grabs the headlines. Multiple TV stings have felled some key lieutenants and a third of voters have abandoned Reform this year. Facing all this, Farage has decided to spurn parliament and tour the country twice a week. Some within his party believe this represents a regression: the leader retreating to his comfort zone, doing what he most enjoys. Farage disagrees. He thinks it is the best way of cutting through. ‘The question is: do you believe that good old-fashioned campaigning still works? Most of Westminster doesn’t think it works and I think it does work.’ These visits are filmed and shared across local, national and social media: ‘The basic principles of campaigning don’t change, we just have new tools by which to expand upon them.’ The Plymouth trip coincides with a change in focus. Reform is now embracing a more economic nationalist tone, with Farage and his team debating whether to back the government taking a 50 per cent stake in South West Water. This is something of a change after the focus on fiscal conservatism earlier this year. A big speech is planned for November. Farage wants the party to issue fewer messages and instead focus on the signature policies of raising the personal allowance to £15,000 and no tax on overtime – the latter inspired by Donald Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’. Despite their personal friendship, Farage has no plans to campaign in the US midterms. Most popular Gavin Mortimer The dark horse who stands to benefit from France’s riots The Spectator Sally Rooney and the comfortable violence of the left Madeline Grant The humiliation of Miatta Fahnbulleh Jenrick will deliver the teal equivalent of the government’s ‘red book’ on Monday, setting out rival Budget forecasts to the official Treasury narrative. He takes inspiration from J.D. Vance and France’s Jordan Bardella in championing a pro-worker, anti-big business vision. One idea under consideration is withholding visas from companies that lay off British workers, following the White House’s move to block Microsoft from hiring foreign workers. Aides believe that the recent Tory reshuffle reveals a shift in the two right-wing parties’ strategies: the Conservatives are once again aiming to win over the affluent south, while Reform focuses on the north and Midlands. If class is back in British politics, then Reform knows for whom it speaks. In Plymouth, where salaries are 11 per cent lower than the national average, the party is making ground. The council’s Reform group leader, Steve Ricketts, was once a prominent young Conservative, a symbol of the splintering of the old Tory tribe. As we head to a pub, Ricketts points out streets filled with houses of multiple occupancy, often used by migrants. Farage is warmly welcomed at the bar. He snaffles a packet of ‘Help for Heroes’ pork scratchings for Lee Anderson, admires the pub’s patriotic mural and muses on how ‘the biggest octopus boom since the 1950s’ is affecting crab prices. The Reform leader is suffering record low favourability ratings but aides hope that a new media push will correct public perceptions about his character. He recently shot a 45-minute documentary for Remembrance Day, visiting first world war battlefields. YouTube is a particular focus: Reform’s channel is only 1,000 subscribers ahead of Restore Britain. Aaron Lobo, Reform’s former director of operations – often credited with devising many of their best events – is now spearheading this push, amid an overhaul of the leader’s office. Ed Sumner is the new director of communications and Harry Parslow is Farage’s creative director. Change is coming too to Farage’s ‘shadow cabinet’: he says a defence spokesman will join in the ‘next few weeks’, with health and agriculture likely to follow. Then there is the list of thrusting hopefuls for the next election. Paul Nuttall, the vice chairman, is running the process and some candidates will be in place next month: 300 people have so far passed assessments and are going through vetting, with ‘another 200 very, very close’. Kemi Badenoch is riding high but Farage is sceptical. ‘She’s had the easiest ride of any Tory leader in my lifetime, certainly in opposition. You wait until the shells start to land on their side. Let’s see how they cope with that.’ ‘Remind me, what did we come to see?’ As for Andy Burnham, Farage likens him to Boris Johnson: a ‘say-a-lot and do-nothing Prime Minister… What’s he achieved in 100 days? Cheaper bus fares.’ On the plane back, Farage and his travelling circus tuck into a ‘curry in a hurry’, a staple meal of life on the road. For a man who puts such a premium on fun, I ask him if he is enjoying life. ‘It’s not as fun as it was,’ he admits, before pausing. ‘Bits of it are.’ In Ukip, he led a cause: a ‘grenade chucking exercise’. In Reform, it is more responsibility. ‘French presidents are now 45, not 75. British prime ministers have got progressively younger… The reason for that is it’s now a relentless 24/7 news cycle. It is absolutely relentless. There is no break from it whatsoever. It’s tough. It’s tough.’ After landing back in London, there is time to pop into a favoured haunt. Farage still enjoys Rothmans cigarettes, quips and pints. ‘Generally, in politics,’ he muses at one point, ‘nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems.’ After a difficult six months, he can only hope the winds have changed.