Editorial: Nigel Farage is an unreliable leader whose voice is needed in politics
News Letter editorial on Tuesday June 4 2024:
Not for the first time, Nigel Farage has performed a u-turn on his political plans.
He was someone who led Ukip, then won the Brexit referendum (something that quite possibly would not even have been held without him, let alone won), then resigned its leadership, then rejoined it as a leader, then said he was leaving politics, then founded the Brexit Party because it wasn't being delivered, then wavered over the 2019 general election, helping hand victory to Boris Johnson.
He seemed latterly to focus on his friendship with Donald Trump and his emerging status as a hero within the American conservative movement.
Now, after saying that he would not stand for MP, thus greatly diminishing the impact of the party Reform UK, he is in fact standing. And in Clacton too, one of the only constituencies in the United Kingdom that had a Ukip MP.
If you want an illustration of the problems with a first-past-the-post electoral system, you need look no further than the 2015 general election in which Mr Farage's party got a vast four million votes but not a single MP.
Critics of Mr Farage sneer at him never having been elected to parliament but when the system is so stacked against you electorally, it’s no surprise. Akin to Jim Allister getting a notable 8% of the vote in the 2022 Stormont election which, pro rata, translates into 7 MLAs yet he got just one seat, his own.
Nigel Farage is not a reliable friend of unionists. He paid lip service to criticism of the Irish Sea border but never got agitated about it the way he did about not getting a full Brexit for Great Britain. This web version of this editorial links to a video in which we challenged him about his unhelpful remark that an all Ireland is coming (see also this article in which the Irish Times journalist who quoted Mr Farage makes clear that he was not, as claims, mis-quoted).
For all his flawed unionism, Mr Farage almost single handedly he shone a spotlight on vital issues such as immigration and EU over-reach that the political elites ignored. His voice is needed in politics.