Spectre haunts EU as reality of Nigel Farage is finally dawning on bloc’s bigwigs | Politics | News
Just a few weeks ago, as Reform’s poll leader plunged into the afterburn of schoolyard allegations and the so-called post-Budget ‘Badenoch bounce’, pundits were predicting with bated breath a ‘Farage peak’. However, consecutive polls conducted over the last week show that Reform is leading again. He stepped back in surprise! The last one was Opinium, which put Reform ahead by 11 points with 31%. Meanwhile, YouGov and More in Common recorded a 2-point jump ahead of Reform.
The EU may be many things but they are not stupid and Europeans can clearly read the tea leaves. This no doubt explains why Brussels is demanding that any future UK government pay compensation if Labor withdraws from the Brexit “renewal” deal on food and drink. As first reported in the Financial Times, the Reform EU is so confident it will win the next election that the EU has labeled it the “Farage clause”.
Reformation has promised to destroy any deal that results in a bloc (mind you, so do the Conservatives, if anyone believes their promises).
In response, Reform leader Nigel Farage told the FT he would overturn Sir Keir Starmer’s deal on the grounds that “no parliament can bind his successor” and described the whole thing as a “democratic disgrace”.
If Sir Keir has his way, the UK will need to dynamically adapt to and enforce new and existing EU rules on animal and plant products. Of course this will all be ignored as a matter of standard contract law, but we all know what the EU fears will happen in 2029.
The big test for reform will now come in May, when local elections will be held across the country. While Farage’s party is poised to make major gains, any victory will be tainted by the fact that Labor has postponed several mayoral elections that Reform were poised to win.
While Labor has denied allegations of conspiracy (maintaining delays is all about local government reforms), Farage and his partners understandably smell bad.
There is undoubtedly a whiff of a rat, too, given what appears to be a stitch-up to punish the UK should a future government try to pull it out of the EU’s regulatory spiderweb.
We know that Labor is trying to pull Britain back into the EU’s orbit. Even Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy recently suggested that the UK might consider rejoining the customs union.
Given that everything has been screwed up by the Conservatives, snubbed by the Labor Party and none of the benefits of Brexit realized, it’s no wonder the public has been taught to see Brexit as a failure.
For example, the UK could leave the EU by implementing smarter regulations in areas such as artificial intelligence and green energy. The Conservatives and Labor failed to achieve this; instead it chose to copy EU rules to maintain market access and missed the chance to strategically adapt regulation.
Similarly, freed from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, the UK could prioritize innovation while rewarding results rather than land. The UK could also leverage London’s legal and fiscal frameworks to close more trade deals or position itself as the first launch country for innovative fintech. It can all be done. They all sucked.
Labor and its friends in Brussels want to tie Britain’s hands and bind any future Reform government. Farage will be clever with his tricks. The future Reform government knows that there is a world in which Britain can trade, as well as innovative areas in which it must advance, alongside the Commonwealth.
