When Nigel Farage angrily denounced the BBC and insulted one of its presenters for raising questions about his alleged schoolboy racism, those who have been studying the tactics of the right noted that his behaviour felt familiar.
“Is it out of the Trump playbook? I think that’s exactly what’s going on,” said Steven Barnett, a professor of communications at the University of Westminster. “This is becoming his new modus operandi, turning defence into attack. It’s exactly the tactics White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, uses. There are a lot of journalists in this country who just aren’t used to it.”
In the weeks since the Guardian published its investigation into Farage’s teenage years, the Reform leader’s response seems to have mirrored the well-established path deployed by his ally, the US president, Donald Trump.
It includes legal threats and denial, before attempts to undermine the people involved and the media asking questions.
His political critics are now calling it out. “Nigel Farage is following the Donald Trump playbook letter for letter: deny reality, threaten to sue, smear the individuals involved and attack the media,” said Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats. “These calculated tactics are a desperate attempt to evade scrutiny by importing the very worst kind of American populist tricks.”
Reform was contacted about the claim that it is following Trumpian tactics but did not respond.
“The un-Trump-like thing about Farage here is he’s giving slightly evasive denials,” said Sunder Katwala, the director of the thinktank British Future. “In a sense, he’s not going the full Trump.”
Observers of Farage’s response to the allegations point to four tactics also deployed by the US president:
Threats to sue
The instinct to sue media outlets has become commonplace for Trump, who has even threatened Rupert Murdoch with legal action from his seat on Air Force One. His threats have usually included demands for eye-watering amounts in damages.
That instinct was apparently shared by Farage when first approached by the Guardian over allegations that he made racist and antisemitic comments during his school days at Dulwich college, London.
Adam Richardson, a barrister for Reform UK, responded saying: “Should the Guardian publish any allegation suggesting that Mr Farage engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour, or that such claims bear upon his present character, you can expect proceedings to be issued forthwith. Those proceedings will seek an injunction, a public retraction, and the maximum award of damages permissible, including aggravated damages for malicious publication.”
That threat was later followed up with a claim that the allegations were “defamatory, and malicious”.
Denial
Denials have been another hallmark of Trump. Unwelcome allegations have long been denounced by the president as “fake”.
The initial response from Reform was a flat denial of the claims of alleged racism in Farage’s schooldays. The first letter from Farage’s barrister stated that the allegation that the Reform leader had “ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.
Farage’s comments have since shifted. When confronted directly in an interview about whether he had made the racist comments, he said: “I would never ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way … No, not with intent.”
He has also said that “banter in a playground” may be interpreted differently today. In 2016, Trump initially described a recording from 2005 in which he said that when he meets beautiful women he feels able to “grab them by the pussy”, as “locker-room banter”. He later apologised.
However, Farage allies have continued to give outright denials, such as the deputy Reform leader, Richard Tice.
Attack the accusers
Trump has repeatedly used personal attacks on his accusers and questioners, most recently calling a US reporter “piggy” as she questioned him about the Epstein scandal.
As Farage has continued to face more questions over the racism allegations, he and Tice have attacked the integrity of Farage’s main accusers. They include Peter Ettedgui, 61, an Emmy- and Bafta-winning director, who alleged Farage repeatedly said “Hitler was right” or “gas them” when they were at school.
Farage has since said there is a “strong political element” to those accusing him, despite 28 people now recalling such behaviour – the vast majority of whom have no ties to political parties.
One former pupil who has corroborated the antisemitism claims is now chair of a local party of the Liberal Democrats, but has said he is not politically motivated.
Ettedgui has said his motivation was “deeply personal” because he was horrified by the idea of Farage becoming prime minister.
Bombard and target the media
Trump’s disdain for the mainstream media has become one of his defining qualities. His White House has even launched a section of the official website that targets organisations and journalists that it claims have distorted coverage.
Farage’s press conference on Thursday night was the starkest example of the Reform leader trying to turn defence into attack by targeting the media.
He threatened to boycott the BBC and targeted its presenter Emma Barnett as “lower grade” after she pressed Tice on his “relationship with Hitler”. He then questioned the BBC for showing programmes in the 1970s and 1980s that would be viewed as racist today.
He also repeatedly shouted “Bernard Manning”, referencing the comedian who died in 2007, whose material has since been regarded as racist and misogynistic.
Matthew McGregor, the chief executive of the campaign group 38 Degrees and a former digital strategist for Labour and Barack Obama, said it was “not a coincidence that Farage is copying the Trump playbook”. He said throwing out bizarre distractions led to “members of the public just tuning out”, a lesson Trump had learned and perfected since 2016.
He said: “Picking a fight with the media doesn’t just change the subject, it also reinforces the thing that he wants to say about himself: that he’s the plucky underdog. It’s just the same approach that Trump had.”
McGregor said Farage put caveats on his denials, unlike Trump’s more brazen approach. “Maybe he’s on a similar journey to the one that Trump went on, testing the guardrails of politics,” he said. “It will be interesting to watch.”
