The real reason Nigel Farage fired himself

D.Former No 10 special adviser Cleo Watson says Nigel Farage has only proven he is “for sale” despite claiming “no one has him”. in the room.

On July 9 the Reform leader stood down as MP for Clacton-on-Sea, deliberately triggering a by-election. Mr Farage will stand for re-election in what he calls a ‘people and order’ vote.

“This is a huge illusion. This is not an underdog.” Helen MacNamara, Cleo’s landlady and former deputy cabinet secretary, says: “This is a thoroughly establishment man: privately educated, worked as a banker, went into politics.”

In his speech, Farage stated that he had not committed any crime or breached parliamentary standards, and claimed that the mainstream media would “prefer that our members of Parliament had no assets and no wealth… Making money is not a crime.”

Helen finds some holes in this argument. “I don’t think people are very positive about politicians having money. They’re opposed to people’s influence being bought, and there’s no attempt to deny that there might be some influence or obligation in any of this.”

Cleo underlines that Farage’s ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ cannot be kept at bay even long enough for him to tender his resignation. “He had said before that ‘no one owns me’… but he is for sale. He couldn’t help but say that he was marketing financial products and everyone was getting extremely good results from them.”

Mr Farage used his resignation speech to claim that criticism of its dealings with crypto billionaires and wire fraudsters was a targeted attack to stop Reformation: “The establishment has decided they can no longer beat us fair and square, so they have chosen to resort to evil methods.”

However, as Cleo points out, Reform’s position in the polls has declined in recent weeks. “I think it’s important to remember that Reformation needs to be revived. They haven’t won the last five by-elections. They’re falling behind in the polls.”

Helen and Cleo agree that this moment is hugely important for Labour, Tory, Green and Liberal Democrat leaders. “When we talk about Farage’s income, those are huge sums of money. But there’s a perception that everyone in politics is involved, so he’s unlikely to come forward.”

“We continue to have real problems with immigration, the cost of living, the stagnant economy. Trying to legitimize it purely through standards and ethical things is important, because scrutiny is important. But you’re falling squarely into the battlefield that plays into his hands.”

“He’s luring everyone into this trap and then shutting it down on them and now they’re in a bloody by-election against Nigel Farage on home soil. If Andy Burnham’s team have a brain cell among them, which I’m sure they do, they should be thinking: ‘How can we get this onto the topic we want to talk about?’ They have 100 days. “They need to beat Farage and he is a sneaky old bastard.”

Listen to the full episode in the room Open Apple Podcasts or Spotifyor watch YouTube.