Reform UK is used to dramatic advances and reversals of fortune. In the past weeks, even the giddy dramas of Nigel Farage’s populist challenger party have defied expectations. A party founded on the principle of thumbing a nose at existing institutions and power hierarchies has found itself for the first time under pressure about its own conduct — amid a flurry of disclosures about undeclared financial support and scrutiny of its secretive benefactors.
Faced with a parliamentary standards investigation into multi-million-pound gifts and squaring up to media scrutiny, Farage, the party’s leader and single most powerful animating force, reminded us of his ability to change the course of an argument in a single move. His “sod you” moment came at 2pm in the heatwave. Furious at a wave of stories casting doubt on the probity of some major financial contributions to Reform and facing an investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, Farage moved into what a chess-loving ally called his “Grob’s attack” mode — referring to an aggressive, unconventional chess opening that takes the fight directly to the opponent by forcing them into fight-or-flight mode.
