Something significant has changed with Nigel Farage in 2025 – and it is not only that he is a sitting MP after multiple failed attempts.
The Reform UK leader has made his name as a nationalist who believed in low taxes, privatising the NHS and demanding an end to immigration. All traditionally rightwing causes.
But after around three decades in British politics, Farage and his party are now openly espousing traditionally leftwing causes.
As he declared today: “Reform is now the party of the workers!”
Today’s pledge to reverse the winter fuel cuts – originally a Labour policy from Gordon Brown – and to end the two-child benefit cap are just two examples.
But the handbrake turn to the left was actually tested in a much deeper-seated leftwing policy – nationalisation.
When Mr Farage and his team went to Scunthorpe and promised to nationalise British Steel, it hit a political nerve. It was a shocker, though, that the former metals market trader who has berated socialism all his career should become a socialist.
It was done to devastating effect. Within four days, Labour had called an emergency Saturday sitting of parliament to follow Reform’s lead and essentially nationalise British Steel.
But there was a much wider strategy at play here. Reform has been after Tory voters and has managed to suck up most of them since last year.
If we look at the Tory vote in the 2024 general election, 52 per cent have now switched to Reform, according to the latest Techne UK poll.
There are few Tory votes left for Reform to take, but there is a ripe harvest of disaffected Labour votes to reap for Farage and his team.
The unpopularity of Sir Keir Starmer on the doorstep – with senior Labour figures admitting he is genuinely hated – makes this an easy target.
But the question is how to target those Labour voters, especially in the north, Midlands and Wales, without losing the Tory gains.
At the moment, according to YouGov analysis, 13 per cent of Labour voters have switched to the Lib Dems and 8 per cent Reform. Techne has 12 per cent to the Lib Dems and 10 per cent to Reform. Starmer’s party is losing to the left and right.
The simple answer is for the most hardline of Brexiteers to look towards Europe. On the continent, rightwing populist parties have led the way.
They offer rightwing nationalism focusing on the flags and migration, but target benefits in a way that helps their target voters.
It is interesting that Hungary’s rightwing prime minister Viktor Orban is the one who has made a virtue of throwing pro-family benefits and the population while banning LGBTQ+ events. Funnily enough, that is what Reform-run councils are now doing with banning LGBTQ+ flags on public buildings in their areas, while trying to sack sometimes phantom diversity officers.
Orban, who like Mr Farage is very close to US President Donald Trump, has won three elections on the trot and is now only coming unstuck because the EU is withholding cash from Hungary over his LGBTQ+ phobia.
It was interesting that Farage said that he is “not supporting benefits culture” but emphasising his support for “family” by ending the two-child benefit cap.
Labour knows the game is up now because education secretary Bridget Phillipson admitted that ending the cap “is not off the table”.
There have been attempts to marry rightwing and leftwing politics in the UK before, not least with Phillip Blond’s Red Tory philosophy when he was an adviser to David Cameron. This included community buyouts of local shopping centres and pubs. George Osborne put a stop to that in the austerity years.
Now, The Independent hears that Blond is flirting with Reform.
The fact is that the cash sums do not add up but Reform convert Tim Montgomerie says this does not matter at the moment. He is not wrong at this stage in the electoral cycle – what matters more is that the political sums add up.
Farage will keep going on about more welfare and tax cuts until 2029.
It is terrifying many in Labour who know the damage it is doing to their base, along with the growing resentment on immigration.
One senior Labour figure believes that Reform will steal a march on Labour in renationalising water in England and Wales. Nothing is surprising any more about Farage and Reform.
