Nigel Farage has launched a stinging attack on the Daily Mail group, accusing the newspapers of trying to stop Reform UK “breaking through into parliament” by publishing reports that suggest he is an ally of Vladmir Putin’s administration.
Farage said the newspaper, which has often been supportive of him in the past, was “collaborating with the Kremlin to protect the dying Conservative party”, also lashing out at Boris Johnson for joining condemnation of his comments about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Farage, who is seeking to win the Clacton seat for Reform in the general election, sparked an angry response after saying in a BBC interview on Friday that the EU and Nato “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding eastwards.
While the Reform leader has stressed he dislikes Vladimir Putin and opposes the invasion, he has been criticised for expressing a narrative seen as supportive of the Russian president.
Farage responded with fury after the Mail on Sunday quoted a source from the office of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying that “the virus of Putinism unfortunately infects people”.
Farage said he had instructed lawyers from the libel specialists Carter-Ruck to write to the Mail on Sunday as the front page had left him feeling “so angry about the breach of the editor’s code”.
Monday’s Daily Mail quoted a spokesperson for the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, suggesting Moscow regarded Farage as “an ally”. Asked if this was the case, the spokesperson told the paper: “How [else do] you see the person who tells people that two plus two is four or reminds you of the exact time?”
On Sunday night, Farage told his followers in a video on X that he had never supported the Russian president’s administration and had not even travelled to Russia, tweeting: “The Daily Mail is collaborating with the Kremlin to protect the dying Conservative party.”
Farage said: “When you get near the target, you start getting flak. I know that as I’ve fought many election campaigns before and sometimes that’s fine, that’s what politics is. But when it’s just not true, when it’s dishonest, then I have a problem.
“Today’s Mail on Sunday front page was just a disgrace. There in the copy, that President Zelenskiy had said I was infected with Putinism … Well, it’s just not true.
The Daily Mail is collaborating with the Kremlin to protect the dying Conservative Party. pic.twitter.com/wTWLIVSDA7
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 23, 2024
“What I did say to Nick Robinson on the BBC was, ‘Yes, 10 years ago, I predicted there’d be a war in Ukraine because I thought that Putin – a bad man, clever, but a bad man – had used EU and Nato expansion as a reason to say to his people, ‘Look, they’re coming for us, we’ve got to go back the other way.’
“I’ve never supported or been an ally of his administration, I’ve never been in Russia, frankly, but, the truth of the story was, Zelenskiy had said nothing.”
In a subsequent post on X and at a rally of supporters in Kent, Farage lashed out at Johnson for joining criticism of his comments, calling the former prime minister “a liar and a hypocrite”.
“This man will go down as the worst prime minister of modern times, a man who betrayed an 80-seat majority. Who opened the door to mass immigration? Who betrayed the will of Brexit voters? It was Boris Johnson,” Farage told supporters from the top of a doubledecker bus in a field outside Maidstone.
Farage appeared with a blown-up copy of a newspaper report of comments by Johnson in 2022, which led to the former Tory leader being branded as an apologist for Putin’s invasion.
Mounting an unrepentant defence of his claims, he added: “Our leaders have no knowledge of history, no knowledge of Russian psychology.”
The Reform leader criticised Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail newspapers, saying the peer believed it was Farage’s fault that the Conservatives were “in for the biggest election beating of their lives”, and that the Mail had been publishing the stories “to protect their friends”.
“[The Conservatives] destroyed themselves with five years of betrayal and broken promises,” Farage added. “What we’re doing is giving many people hope.
“The Daily Mail are trying to stop Reform UK breaking through in big numbers into the British parliament to give proper opposition to Keir Starmer, who’s certain of being prime minister.”
The Daily Mail group has been contacted for comment.
