Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has launched an extraordinary four-word attack on bumbling ex-Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the Ukraine war as both parties find their campaigns in turmoil.
Mr Farage today branded Mr Johnson “a liar and a hypocrite” in a post shared to X. The Reform UK leader accompanied the post with two newspaper articles, which he claimed showed Mr Johnson’s shifting position on the war in Ukraine.
The former Brexit allies lashed out at one another after Mr Farage claimed in a BBC Panorama interview on Friday that the West had provoked the war in Ukraine. While the Reform UK leader denied he supported Russian President Vladimir Putin, he suggested NATO and European Union (EU) enlargement up to Russia’s borders gave the despot an excuse to invade Ukraine – although he admitted the despot wanted to invade anyway.
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BBC via Getty Images)
Mr Johnson confronted Farage for not apologising for the comment in a Saturday Telegraph opinion piece, posting to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday: “This is nauseating ahistorical drivel and more Kremlin propaganda. Nobody provoked Putin. Nobody “poked the bear with a stick”. The people of Ukraine voted overwhelmingly in 1991 to be a sovereign and independent country.
“They were perfectly entitled to seek both NATO and EU membership. There is only one person responsible for Russian aggression against Ukraine – both in 2014 and 2022 – and that is Putin. To try to spread the blame is morally repugnant and parroting Putin’s lies. It is bizarre that the author should also suggest we now reduce our support for Ukraine, when the solution to the conflict is in fact clear – the Ukrainians need to win, and to repel Putin’s invasion. They can and they will. The problem in the last 30 years has not been western provocation but western weakness in the face of Russian aggression – a weakness exemplified by this article.”
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PA)
Mr Farage countered by sharing two newspaper titles in his X post today, which he suggested showed Mr Johnson’s shifting position on the cause of the war in Ukraine. The first cover, from the May 10, 2015, edition of the iPaper said “Boris blames EU for war in Ukraine” while the second, a February 28, 2022, Independent article read “Boris Johnson blamed EU for Russia’s 2014 attacks on Ukraine and was branded ‘Putin apologist.”
The spat comes as both Reform UK and the Tories find themselves under fire. Mr Farage has been forced to defend his position on the war in Ukraine and faced a scathing attack from the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky who said the Reform UK leader was “infected with the virus of Putinism.”
Meanwhile, the Conservatives” campaign continues to plunge to new depths as its betting scandal deepens. Several Tory members and candidates are being investigated by the Gambling Commission after a flurry of bets were placed on the date of the General Election just one day before PM Rishi Sunak made the announcement.
Today Mr Sunak directly denied having placed a bet on the date of the General Election. The PM added he was “not aware” of any other Tories who were under investigation.