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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
John Crace

Losing support to Restore, Farage seizes a golden opportunity to bring racists back into the fold

A phone showing Nigel Farage footage
Nigel broke his self-imposed house arrest … by streaming to the nation from a field. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

The email invitation arrived shortly after 7am. Nigel Farage would be making an “address to the nation” an hour later. The grandiosity. The self-importance. An address to the nation is something usually delivered by the monarch or the prime minister during an emergency. Not from a leader of a political party with just eight MPs.

There again, pomposity is now Nige’s last resort. A few months ago, we would all have been invited to a press conference in central London. Now he is a virtual prisoner in his own home. Afraid to subject himself to awkward questions about the £5m he says he was “gifted” from a Thai crypto billionaire. So Reform is effectively leaderless. All we get to see of Nige is the occasional video from an indeterminate location. He is a man determined not to be found by anyone.

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