Reform UK leader’s falling-out with a fellow MP is the latest in a long list of quarrels with allies.
LONDON — Beefing with one colleague looks like an accident. Feuding with a stack of them looks like a habit.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been engaged in a bitter war of words with fellow MP Rupert Lowe in recent days — marking open warfare in an insurgent party that has been threatening Britain’s Labour government in the polls.
Lowe lost the party whip and was referred to the police in early March after he was accused of “threats of physical violence” and “inappropriate behavior.” He has strongly denied the allegations — threatening to sue the party — and is standing by strident criticism of the way Farage is running Reform, which he has aired publicly in recent days.
For longtime followers of Farage — a veteran of UKIP and the Brexit Paty — it’s Groundhog Day all over again. POLITICO runs through 11 times Farage feuded with colleagues who were all (supposedly) on his side.
Farage v Bloom
Here’s a blast from the past. In a 2013 meltdown for the UKIP party he then led, Farage had to suspend controversial MEP Godfrey Bloom for describing a room of women as “sl*ts” — and then hitting a journalist over the head with a brochure.
Farage called the comments “ridiculous” and accused Bloom of overshadowing UKIP’s fall conference. Bloom didn’t stand again for the European Parliament.
Farage v Reckless
Before you jump ship to another party, it’s a good idea to know what their policies are. Mark Reckless ignored this rule in switching from the Tories to UKIP in 2014. While standing for his Kent seat again, Reckless claimed EU migrants might have to leave the U.K. after a “transitional period” if the U.K. voted for Brexit.
Farage swiftly said that wasn’t party policy and that anyone who came to Britain legally was entitled to stay — leaving the then-UKIP leader’s new recruit feeling “a bit sore” about the perceived U-turn. Still, despite losing his seat in 2015, Reckless later led the Brexit Party in Wales and is now part of Reform. All’s well that ends well.
Farage v Carswell
Farage’s encounter with fellow Tory defector Douglas Carswell didn’t end quite so well.
Despite Carswell’s winning his Clacton seat twice for UKIP, there was no love lost between the pair.
Farage accused Carswell of trying to block efforts to put him in the House of Lords (which Carswell denied) — and called Carswell a “Tory party posh boy” who should be expelled from Ukip.
Carswell “has tried to undermine everything we’ve stood for for a very long time,” the Brexiteer-in-chief added. What a relief it will have been for both of them that Carswell soon left UKIP — and the U.K. altogether.
Farage v … the entire official Brexit campaign
Brexiteers … bickering? Color us shocked.
After Farage backed Leave.EU as the official pro-Brexit campaign, the Electoral Commission designated Vote Leave as lead campaign for the Brexit side, leaving Farage smarting.
Never a fan of losing, he accused the outfit of being “too defensive” on immigration — and branded its leaders “cretins” just a month before referendum day.
“They brief every day that I’m toxic, [that] I put voters off, and there is absolutely no statistical evidence to back that up at all,” he said. Tell us what you really think, Nige!
Farage v Evans
It wasn’t just Tory rivals feuding with Farage in the run-up to Brexit.
In 2015, UKIP’s most senior woman, its Deputy Chairman Suzanne Evans, said Farage was seen as “very divisive” and argued that “somebody else” should front the Brexit campaign. Ouch.
Evans was subsequently dropped as a party spokesperson and officials were told to have no contact with her. Small wonder Farage refused to back her UKIP leadership bid the following year.
Farage v O’Flynn
Patrick O’Flynn made the leap from journalism to politics by becoming a UKIP MEP in 2014. Soon after the 2015 election, however, O’Flynn labeled Farage “snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive” and then stood down as its economics spokesperson.
O’Flynn did later apologize to Farage, which the then-UKIP leader called ”big-hearted and honest.” So that’s nice.
Farage v Sked
Alan Sked, the founder of UKIP, had some choice words for Farage in 2015. He lamented what the party had become under Farage, branding him a “silly bugger” for focusing on immigration and praying he wasn’t elected to Westminster.
Farage got his revenge last year — storming into the British parliament as MP for Clacton after plenty of tries.
Farage v … UKIP itself
For years, Farage was synonymous UKIP. Its leader over three separate periods — and the man at the helm when it really started to terrify Britain’s Conservative Party — his exit from UKIP would be like ravens leaving the Tower of London.
Yet Farage did exactly that, quitting in December 2018 and accusing then-leader Gerard Batten of turning it into an outfit for “street activism,” and of having an “obsession” with far-right agitator Tommy Robinson and Islam. UKIP these days is a shadow of its former self.
Farage v his own Brexit Party MEPs
Just a week before the 2019 general election, four MEPs resigned from Farage’s next outfit, the Brexit Party, and urged voters to back the Tories.
They condemned Farage’s election strategy, and said the Brexit Party should stand down in Tory target seats to ensure Britain’s departure from the bloc was not thwarted. “We believe the Brexit Party has taken a wrong turn and is itself putting Brexit in jeopardy,” they wrote.
Farage v Habib
Farage made a shock comeback as Reform UK leader during last year’s election campaign — and that soon meant putting his own people in charge.
Ben Habib was duly sacked as Reform’s co-deputy leader soon after the general election and … did not bow out gracefully.
Farage needed to learn that the party “should not be controlled by one man,” Habib said, as he warned about a lack of democratization for the insurgent right-wingers.
Habib later quit Reform. Asked what impact his departure would have, Farage responded: “None whatsoever.” Touché.
Farage v Lowe
The latest fight on Farage’s hands is with Rupert Lowe, the newly-elected Reform MP for Great Yarmouth (and a man who’s been earning praise from X boss and Donald Trump appointee Elon Musk).
Lowe tore into Farage last week, using an interview with the Daily Mail to question Farage’s leadership and accuse him of acting like a “messiah.”
Just days later, Lowe lost the Reform whip — and was reported to police over allegations he had physically threatened the party’s chairperson, Zia Yusuf. Reform top brass argued that those allegations were separate from his criticism of Farage. Lowe branded them a witch-hunt, and hit back at what he called “untrue and false” claims against him.
The sparring continued over the weekend in op-eds and on social media — and shows no signs of dying down.
“This is what happens when you mess with Nigel,” the Telegraph quoted a party source as saying.
