Nigel Farage has been unusually quiet lately.
With questions swirling about his finances and allegations about donations to Reform being looked at by police, he’s not been as readily available as he once was. This time last year, Westminster journalists were getting invite after invite to hear his musings at a seemingly endless round of press conferences.
But those invites have dried up of late – coincidentally since we all learned that he had accepted an undeclared £5million gift from a crypto tycoon. However even the most protected species has to break cover occasionally, and so that journalistic golden ticket – an opportunity to finally question Farage – got reporters excited over the weekend.
With the Reform leader’s personal ratings plummeting – his approval level is now the lowest it’s been since he took the party’s top job in 2024 – it’s clear he can’t hide forever. And to be frank, it was starting to look a bit cowardly.
With Labour taking a lead in the polls after more than a year, inaction was not an option.
So what better way to try launch a comeback – and, cynics might suggest, try to divert attention – than returning to his safe space and launching yet another plan to stop small boats. Reform might be struggling with sleaze allegations, but he’s been lapping up applause at rallies all over the country on this issue for years.
And it’s far more dignified than slugging it out with Count Binface, the main challenger in his ill-thought-through Clacton by-election next week.
On the upper floor of a swanky London hotel, a tanned-looking Mr Farage appeared alongside his self-described “Shadow Home Secretary” Zia Yusuf to boldly announce they would get the navy involved. As the sharp-suited Reform leader got started, a document was handed around outlining the plan, such as it is. At least the ink was dry, but a quick skim read revealed some big gaps – including the small detail of what the French and Belgians might make of it all.
British ships dropping people on foreign beaches without permission would be thorny, to put it incredibly mildly. The 21-page (including the contents page and one bearing just the name of the report and the Reform logo) document reassuringly asserted that Reform “doesn’t believe for one moment that French Navy or Gendarmerie would open fire on Royal Marines conducting a humanitarian mission”.
That’s a relief then. It might feel hastily-written and vague, but that’s not the point. This is Farage trying to get on the front foot, and any time spent talking about small boats rather than multi-million pound gifts is a win.
But could he come through a round of questioning unscathed? That was the question that would have troubled him and his advisors after gambling on calling a press conference. Bear in mind many in the room hadn’t had the chance to directly ask Mr Farage anything since the £5million gift came to light, and there was a lot at stake.
The list of questions myself and colleagues would like to ask him is starting to look like War and Peace, but thankfully the BBC got things off to a strong start, asking if the headline-grabbing boats plan was an effort to divert attention away from his and Reform’s finances.
And while we’re at it, he was asked, what of reports he struck a secret deal to return as Reform leader shortly before the general election? “Oh, questions about money could go on for years, you know what I mean?” Mr Farage astutely declared.
And he confirmed that the talks did take place – but nevertheless insisted he had “no intention” of returning to lead the party. Which didn’t exactly clear everything up. He did, however, clarify, that these talks happened after he pocketed the generous sum from Thai-based businessman Christopher Harborne.
Even after Rishi Sunak called the general election in 2024, he told us, he had no intention of standing until he caved in to pressure from allies.
With a big press contingent in the room, it was very un-Farage-like to cut the Q&A short with so many wanting to quiz him. The Mirror, The Guardian and The Times were all excluded, although there was time to take a question from his former advisor Raheem Kassam, now boss at the hard-right National Pulse.
Farage will be pleased with how it went. He spent a lot of time talking about boats, and far fewer questions about his finances and his party’s than he might have expected. This was especially true given that shortly before the press conference started, it emerged that the Parliamentary standards commissioner is investigating an allegation that Farage’s No2, Richard Tice, failed to declare an interest.
Where once the Reform leader would have – to his credit – taken a question from every journalist in the room, the fightback version of Farage is unlikely to be so brave.
The wait for a chance to quiz him continues.