Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden has savaged Reform UK leader Nigel Farage after he claimed the West provoked Russia to invade Ukraine.
The businesswoman hit out at Farage after he suggested Western leaders were responsible for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Mrs Meaden claimed Mr Farage was standing with the bully.
“Let me get this right,” Mrs Meaden said. “A bully strikes at its neighbour and Farage basically says ‘it was the neighbour’s fault and they were asking for it’ for standing up to a bully?”
Since being shared on the social media platform on Saturday, June 22, the comment has been viewed more than 471,500 times. Mr Farage’s comments during a BBC Panorama special with veteran journalist Nick Robinson have sparked waves of condemnation from politicians from all sides of the political aisle.
Mr Farage said during the interview on Friday that NATO and European Union expansion was to blame for the conflict. He said: “I stood up in the European Parliament in 2014 and I said, and I quote, ‘there will be a war in Ukraine.’ Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming for us again,’ and to go to war.”
He went on: “We provoked this war. It’s – you know, of course it’s his [Putin’s] fault, he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse.” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer were among those who slammed Mr Farage over his claim.
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BBC via Getty Images)
Mr Starmer previously told The Mirror: “On the question of Farage, his comments were disgraceful. Anyone who is standing for Parliament ought to be really clear that Russia is the aggressor, Putin bears responsibility, and that we stand with Ukraine, as we have done from the beginning of this conflict, and Parliament has spoken with one voice on this since the beginning of the conflict.”
Writing in The Telegraph over the weekend, Mr Farage refused to apologise and insisted he was neither “an apologist or supporter of Putin.” He added: “I am not and never have been an apologist or supporter of Putin. His invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible. As a champion of national sovereignty, I believe that Putin was entirely wrong to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine.
“Nobody can fairly accuse me of being an appeaser. I have never sought to justify Putin’s invasion in any way and I’m not now.”