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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Editorial

The Guardian view on UK-EU relations: voters would reward greater ambition

Nigel Farage smiles while speaking at a Reform UK conference podium onstage
‘Nigel Farage will for ever be associated with the demand for emancipation from Brussels but is rarely heard celebrating its completion’: Reform UK party conference, Birmingham, 5 September 2026. Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters

Modesty is not a trait commonly associated with Nigel Farage. Something else must explain the Reform UK leader’s reluctance to talk about what is undoubtedly his biggest achievement.

Few individuals can boast of having influenced British politics as drastically as Mr Farage, with his record of campaigning for Brexit before that word was even coined. He will for ever be associated with the demand for emancipation from Brussels, but is rarely heard celebrating its completion. It barely earned a mention in speeches at his party’s annual conference last week. The simple reason is that none of the promises made about the benefits of life outside the EU have been fulfilled. Leaving made the country poorer, and voters know it.

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