Farage says he’ll meet Le Pen ‘at some point in time’

LONDON — Nigel Farage insisted on Thursday he will meet Marine Le Pen “at some point in time” as the French presidential hopeful keeps the Reform UK leader waiting for a Paris visit. The leader of the British right-wing insurgency had been hoping for a jaunt to France before the end of October — but has been kept waiting for now. Reform had insisted he would meet the president of the far-right National Party before the end of the year — but four of her officials told POLITICO this is not on Le Pen’s schedule.

After a defense speech on Thursday, the Reform leader told reporters: “I haven’t met Le Pen for some years actually. But she’s going to win the next election. “I will go meet her at some point in time.” One Le Pen adviser, who like the others was speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive party relations, said earlier that “the costs and benefits” of a Farage meeting still needed weighing up. Le Pen is the favorite to win the first round of France’s 2027 presidential elections — but the Reform leader has suffered a dip in the polls after a series of damaging allegations about his party.

A migration agreement that Farage unveiled early September with the National Rally’s second in command, Jordan Bardella, also created a backlash in France.