What changed? Until his press conference yesterday lobbed a hand grenade into the stagnant water of this election campaign, Nigel Farage had been emphatic that he would not be standing as a parliamentary candidate for Reform UK; and that he would, in any case, be busy in the United States assisting his friend, the convicted felon Donald Trump, seek a second presidential term.
According to the yarn that he spun yesterday, it was a sense of patriotic responsibility to the people of this nation that inspired his volte-face. On the campaign trail, he had (he said) been afflicted by a “terrible sense of guilt” that he was letting down millions of voters who were already being betrayed by the Labour-Conservative establishment, and that it was time to lead not only his party but “a political revolt … a turning of our backs on the political status quo”.
