The rapper Eminem once launched his global career with the song “Without Me”. And this is the very song that resounds as the British right-wing populist Nigel Farage strides through a theater in his constituency of Clacton-on-Sea in front of around 800 cheering supporters.
“Guess who’s back, back again,” the chorus of the Eminem song blares from the speakers. There is only one answer to this question at this moment: Farage is back – and campaigning.
As he steps onto the stage, fireworks spray a shower of bright yellow sparks. An element of surprise that is emblematic of the unpredictable politician. In May, Farage denied rumors that he would be running in the British general election on July 4. A few days later, however, he announced that he would not only run, but also take over the chairmanship of the party he founded, Reform UK.
It is Farage’s eighth candidacy, but his chances are better than ever. Since its founding six years ago, then still under the name Brexit Party, Reform UK has climbed to as high as 19 percent in the polls. In a recent poll, the party even came out ahead of the incumbent Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Farage promptly named Reform UK the new “opposition party” to the leading Labour Party, thereby confirming his declared goal of bringing down the Conservatives. But he also has the Social Democrats under Keir Starmer in his sights. “They’ll be scared of me when I’m done with them,” he joked to the cheering crowd in the English coastal town.
Without reading from a sheet of paper and standing casually next to the lectern, Farage took the established parties to task in the almost full hall. “Britain is broken,” he raged. The Conservatives cheated on Brexit, immigration is at record levels, waiting lists for doctor’s appointments are scandalously long and property prices are through the roof.
Only Reform UK offers real solutions, proclaimed the chairman, whose party programme he had presented the day before: zero immigration, tax relief amounting to billions, withdrawal from international institutions and a step backwards in climate protection policy were just some of the bold promises that experts later described as unfeasible.
On this evening in Clacton, Farage is mainly on a charm offensive: he makes the crowd laugh, asks the audience open questions, and responds spontaneously to shouts. Pure entertainment.
Over the long years of his political career, Farage has become a leading figure on the British right. Born in 1964, the Londoner, who worked as a stockbroker before his political career, made a name for himself as “Mr. Brexit” because he tirelessly propagated that Britain would be better off outside the EU.
As a schoolboy, he initially joined the Conservative Party, but the party’s positions soon no longer went far enough for the EU and immigration critic. In his biography “One Party After Another”, author Michael Crick writes, citing contemporary witnesses, that even as a schoolboy Farage had shown sympathy for Adolf Hitler and the right-wing conservative anti-immigration politician Enoch Powell.
In the early 1990s, Farage left the Conservative Party after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which formed the basis for the European Union, and founded the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) as a counter movement. In the 2014 European elections, UKIP became the strongest British party with 27.5 percent of the vote.
This result gave her the impetus to urge then Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a referendum on remaining in the EU. In the run-up to the vote, Farage incited hatred against Eastern European workers, portraying them as criminal welfare parasites. The narrative caught on – the British voted for Brexit.
After achieving his goal and as a result of internal party disputes, Farage left the party in 2018 and continued his anti-European course by founding the Brexit Party. Three years ago, he resigned and handed over the chairmanship to property tycoon Richard Tice, who led the party until recently under the name Reform UK. Instead of being at the center of political events, he commented on them until recently as the presenter of his own show on the right-wing private broadcaster “GB News”.
In recent months, however, he has fueled the rumour mill with subtle hints about a return to the political stage. Last year, he appeared on the British equivalent of the reality show “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!” and once again surprised everyone with how far he would go for a bit of the limelight. The British media gratefully seized on the speculation, as the populist offered a far more exciting profile than the indifferent and even boring top politicians Prime Minister Sunak and Labour leader Starmer.
The personality cult surrounding Farage drives his party’s well-oiled PR machine. Even the party manifesto reflects this strategy. The cover picture shows a cool, sacrosanct Farage in a suit, hiding his mobile phone in his jacket in the manner of a secret agent from a movie.
Due to the majority voting system, according to which only the candidate with the most votes enters the House of Commons, the Reform Party will, according to forecasts, be able to send a handful of MPs to London at best. But even that could reorganize the political balance of power. The Conservatives would suffer the most, as they could lose most of their voters to Farage’s Reform UK.
But the Labour Party, which will most likely form the new government, would also come under pressure after an election victory. This is because convincing speakers like Farage could, with democratic legitimacy, help shape the agenda in the House of Commons with their issues, instead of interrupting from the sidelines as they have done so far.
Whether this will happen will be decided on July 4th. The party is fielding over 600 candidates in the elections. A look into the past suggests that Farage has good chances in Clacton-On-Sea: In the district of 53,000 inhabitants, a majority voted for Brexit. According to a new poll, Reform UK is the strongest party there with 42 percent.
But like everywhere else in the country, the politician has opponents here too, who say he is a “racist, fascist and misogynist”. At the election campaign event, bags are thoroughly checked, and muscle-bound security personnel guard the hall during his speech.
A precautionary measure, because at his first appearance in Clacton at the beginning of June, a local resident threw a milkshake in the populist’s face. No drinks were thrown that evening, and everyone’s eyes were fixed on the 60-year-old.
Could this man become Prime Minister, as he envisions in five years? “That would be brilliant,” says one visitor. “Look at his party manifesto! That would be good times for Britain.”