Nigel Farage appeared to make an awkward gaffe this evening as he chugged a beer in front of the England game.
The Reform UK leader – who is standing for the eighth time for a parliamentary seat, despite crashing failures the other seven previous times – was filmed getting back pats and selfies with fans as he watched the dreary Euros group match between England and Denmark.
Pumping his fist in the air as he wore a very crisp England shirt – the same one worn by the 1996 squad for the Euro semi-final when Gareth Southgate missed that penalty – Farage grinned and joined in the cheers while fans whipped out their camera phones.
But one of his ill-timed cheers came right in the 34th minute, just as Denmark’s Morten Hjulmand put the ball right through Pickford’s hands to equalise. Talk about an own goal, Nige.
Thankfully, this foot(ball)-in-mouth moment didn’t deter self-publicist Farage from posting the footage to his X account, writing alongside it: “Proper stuff!”
Proper stuff indeed. Farage is in Blackpool tonight, where he’s been greeted by a giant sand painting of his own face. Awkwardly, some scallywags have written next to it on the beach: ” Nigel Farage, friend of Putin, enemy of the NHS.”
It was installed by the campaign group Led By Donkeys, which put out an accompanying video of the I’m A Celebrity star talking about the Russian dictator.
“I was asked a couple of months ago which world leader did I admire, and I said Vladimir Putin, as an operator,” he can be heard saying. That remark was taken from an interview he gave in 2014, but he’s since branded the Russian president a “murderous dictator”.
Asked earlier this month to clarify his previous remarks, Farage said: “How many years has he been in power? You know, he’s gone from Prime Minister to President. He’s a clever political operator.”
The Clacton candidate has also previously expressed admiration for a US-esque model of healthcare, raising eyebrows over how his party would treat the NHS if they ever got their mitts on real power.
“I think we’re going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare,” Farage said on the campaign trail. “Frankly, I would feel more comfortable that my money would return value through the marketplace of an insurance company.”
Of course you would. In totally unrelated news, here are 13 times politicians pretended to love the footy. Politicians, eh! They’re just like us!