‘The party leader channelled the showboating of his idol Donald Trump as he entered the stage with thumping music and a pyrotechnic catwalk,’ The Mirror’s Sophie Huskisson writes
As Reform UK’s conference kicked off yesterday, Nigel Farage once again chose style over substance.
The party leader channelled the showboating of his idol Donald Trump as he entered the stage with thumping music and a pyrotechnic catwalk.
He failed to offer a new policy announcement to his devoted supporters – one of whom told me she’d splashed out around £600 on hotels, trains and the ticket to attend.
Having spent the summer making empty announcements and stoking anger across the country, his big annual conference felt no different. It was all about the performance, the waving of flags, the jokes – a showman not a serious politician.
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The Reform UK leader sought to shake off the view that Reform UK is a one-man band. But the last minute scramble to move his speech so it wasn’t overshadowed by Keir Starmer’s reshuffle only underlined how main character Farage didn’t want his big moment to be stolen.
Promoting the ‘Nigel Farage show’ appears to have been drilled into his colleagues too. Reform UK’s Greater Lincolnshire mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns declared: “Nigel…you will save Britain”.
And newly defected Nadine Dorries, a former Tory minister, said our country needed “saving”, adding: “The only way we can do that is with a party that is united behind its leader.”
READ MORE: Cringe moment Reform UK mayor Andrea Jenkyns breaks into song in full sequin outfit
Their two speeches set Mr Farage up to do what he does best – talk Britain down. It comes after the Clacton MP skipped Parliament’s return this week as he was badmouthing Britain in the US.
“Our country is in a very bad place,” he told his fanatical supporters. “It’s a mixture between anger and despair. Is it any wonder that the protests have sprung up outside the hotels?
“We are in economic decline. We are in societal breakdown with law and order. We are in cultural decline,” he ranted.
Did he have solutions? Of course not. He repeated his pledge to end the small boats crisis within two weeks if he was elected to No10 – despite his immigration plans being torn to shreds when he announced them last month.
Labour said Mr Farage was offering “anger without answers” with his speech. “It was the same old parade of complaints we’ve heard before,” a spokesman said.
Mr Farage embodied Reform UK’s political strategy – ludicrous fireworks, thumping music and no substance on policy.
His dramatic display was only upstaged by his colleague Dame Andrea, who turned up wearing a fully sequined blue jumpsuit and singing a song about insomniacs.
“We are a nation of insomniacs, as Britain is sleepwalking into disaster,” she said as she ranted about Labour.
Maybe, she’s right. But she and Mr Farage are the horror show that awaits.
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