Despite claiming that ‘nobody owns him’, Nigel Farage has only ever proven himself to be “up for sale”, former No 10 special advisor Cleo Watson has said on the latest episode of In The Room.
On 9 July, the Reform leader quit as MP of Clacton-on-Sea, intentionally triggering a by-election. Mr Farage will stand for re-election in what he described as a ‘people vs the establishment’ vote.
“It’s a massive illusion. This is not an underdog.” Cleo co-host and ex-deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara says. “This is a man entirely of the establishment: privately educated, worked as a banker, went into politics.”
In his speech, Mr Farage declared that he had not committed any crimes or broken parliamentary standards and claimed that mainstream media “would rather our members of Parliament had no assets and no wealth at all... Making money is not a crime.”
Helen finds some holes in this argument. “People are not super against politicians having money, I don’t think. They’re against people’s influence being bought, and there’s no attempt at all in any of this to deny that there might be some influence or obligation.”
Cleo highlights that Farage’s ‘entrepeneurial spirit’ couldn’t even be kept at bay long enough for him to deliver his resignation. “He’s said, previously, ‘nobody owns me’... but he is for sale. He couldn’t resist slipping in that he has marketed financial products and everyone’s done extremely well from them.”
Mr Farage used his resignation speech to claim that criticism over his relationships with crypto billionaires and wire fraudsters was a targeted attack to stop Reform: “The establishment have now decided that they can't beat us fairly, so they've chosen to use foul means.”
But, as Cleo points out, Reform’s position in the polls has seen a decline in recent weeks. “I don’t think it should be forgotten that Reform do need to be rejuvinated. They have not won the last five by-elections. They’re slipping in the polls.”
Helen and Cleo agree that this moment is extremely crucial for the Labour, Tory, Green, and Lib Dem leaders. “When we talk about Farage’s income, these are massive amounts of money. But there is this perception that everyone in politics is at it, so he doesn’t necessarily stand out.
“Our actual problems around immigration and cost of living and a stagnant economy are persisting. Trying to de-legitimize him based purely off the standards and ethics stuff is important, because scrutiny is important. But you fall right into the battleground that works for him.
“He’s been luring everyone into this trap, and then snapped it shut on them, and now they’re in a bloody by-election against Nigel Farage on his home ground. If Andy Burnham’s team have got a brain cell amongst them, which I’m sure they do, they need to be thinking, ‘How do we get this onto what we want to talk about?’ They’ve got 100 days. They need to outfox Farage and he’s a sneaky old bastard.”
Listen to the full episode of In The Room on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or watch on YouTube.
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