Farage: who are the guilty men (and women)?

“Faragemania simply cannot last – these European elections will be the crest of his power,” declared author and broadcaster Steve Richards in 2014.

He was wrong, of course. ‘Faragemania’ hasn’t just lasted, it’s mutated, rebranded, and returned with a vengeance. Like a recurring rash, Farage keeps coming back, louder and more emboldened each time.

Now, after seven failed attempts, he’s finally in Parliament and his party just dominated the local elections, winning the most votes, the most seats, and overall control of most councils. A man once dismissed as fringe now dominates the political conversation and poses a real threat of becoming Britain’s next prime minister.

So how do we explain it? Is it really down to one man’s so-called charisma—a very specific brand of blokey, belligerent charm? Or should we be asking: who let this happen? Who are the enablers—the donors bankrolling his campaigns, the commentators parroting his lines, the broadcasters handing him a microphone time and time again, and, of course, the botched policies of the other parties?

A bungled Brexit

In 2016, Farage resigned as UKIP leader, claiming he’d achieved his ‘political ambition’ by dragging Britain out of the EU. It was his third resignation from the job, after stints from 2006–2009 and 2010–2015. He even briefly stepped down after the 2015 general election, having failed for the seventh time to win a parliamentary seat, only to bounce back within days.

But instead of fading, Farage thrived on the chaos that followed. The Brexit vote divided the Tories: Cameron walked away; May fought for a workable deal but lost the Commons; and the Tory Brexit purists stirred up as much trouble as they could. Farage was able to seize the narrative. He admitted Britain hadn’t ‘actually benefited from Brexit economically’ but pointed the finger at ‘useless’ Tory governments that had ‘mismanaged’ the whole thing.

The Tories’ botched Brexit left a vacuum, and Farage has filled it. In the eyes of many Brexiteers, he’s still the only man who can be trusted to finish the job he started.

The demonising of migrants

It’s a similar story with immigration and, more specifically, the vilifying of migrants. Successive Conservative governments dating back decades have demonised migrants, sometimes more subtly, and often overtly, with troubling consistency and occasional political ‘success’.

In 1964, the West Midlands constituency of Smethwick became a setting for race-baiting politics. Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths was elected MP after a campaign that notoriously exploited anti-immigrant sentiment, including the appalling slogan: “If you want a n***** for a neighbour, vote Labour.”
Four years later, Enoch Powell delivered his infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech, warning of societal collapse under non-white immigration, a sentiment echoed in 1978 by then-opposition leader Margaret Thatcher, who spoke of Britain being “swamped” by immigrants.

Fast-forward to 2015 and prime minister David Cameron described people fleeing conflict and poverty as a “swarm” trying to reach the UK, a term widely condemned as dehumanising. Labour’s Harriet Harman rightly reminded him: “He is talking about people, not insects.”

Then came Boris Johnson. As London mayor, he praised the capital’s diversity. But during his rise to Downing Street, he flipped the script, mocking Muslim women in burqas as looking like ‘letterboxes’ and ‘bank robbers.’ Days before the 2019 election, Johnson was accused of using anti-immigration dog-whistles and scapegoating migrants for domestic failings. His history of racist, sexist, and imperialist remarks helped craft a populist image disguised as ‘authenticity.’

Under Rishi Sunak, the rhetoric hardened even further. Home secretary Suella Braverman was accused of echoing Enoch Powell with her anti-migrant narrative in which she claimed politicians had been ‘too squeamish’ about immigration. Sunak himself warned that unchecked migration could ‘overwhelm’ Europe, parroting the same fear-based language of populists rising across Hungary, Italy, and Austria.

Yet for all the inflammatory talk, Conservative governments repeatedly failed to deliver on promises to reduce either legal or illegal migration. This ‘failure’ hasn’t just frustrated voters (a certain kind of voter), it’s fuelled resentment and further scapegoated migrants.

And watching from the sidelines, ready to capitalise, is Nigel Farage. As the Tories flounder, Farage seizes the narrative, casting himself as the only one willing to ‘act’ and spinning the yarn that migrants are sponging off the hard work of so-called ‘native’ Brits.

But as journalist Sam Bright points to, the migration debate is based on blatant, provable falsehoods. The chart below shows that voters believe the government spends a lot on immigration and asylum, ranking it between the NHS and national debt payments, but the second chart demonstrates, the public’s belief couldn’t be more misplaced. In 2023, the UK spent £212 billion on health, £141 billion on pensions, and a relatively trivial £3 billion on asylum and immigration.

Perhaps even more alarming, is Labour’s apparent attempt to compete on the same anti-immigration turf as Farage. But as Labour MP Nadia Whitcome rightly notes in an article for Labour List:

“We will never out-Farage Farage on immigration – nor would it be morally right for us to attempt it. The point of our party is to stand up for working class people, wherever they were born.”

In truth, the groundwork for Farage’s rise was laid long ago—by decades of right-wing politicians fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment and normalising the rhetoric based on falsehoods he now so effectively exploits.

Who funds Farage?

Then there’s the question of who funds Farage. The millionaire, who was once a City trader, likes to brand his party as “anti-establishment,” a voice for the people. But in reality, it’s bankrolled by the very elite he claims to oppose, although it is never quite clear what the hard right mean by the elite.

It seems a long time ago now, when, following the Brexit vote, insurance tycoon Arron Banks lavishly funded Farage with a furnished Chelsea home, a car and driver, and money to promote him in America.

According to invoices, emails and other documents, Banks, who regularly bankrolled Farage’s former party, UKIP, spent about £450,000 in the year after the referendum, when Farage had quit as Ukip leader.

And super rich establishment figures have continued pouring money to Farage. In 2024, Reform took in £4.75m. Over a third of it from former Conservative donors, mainly from the party’s Brexiteer wing. These include figures like Richard Smith, who owns the Tufton Street townhouse long associated with opaquely funded right-wing think tanks, and Fitriani Hay, once the biggest donors to Liz Truss’s leadership campaign. Hedge fund boss Crispin Odey, who has faced allegations of sexual harassment (which he denies), is also among the contributors.

In December, billionaire property mogul and ex-Tory backer Nick Candy was made Reform’s treasurer. He pledged a seven-figure sum to the party shortly after resigning from the Conservatives. His wife, former actress Holly Valance, is now one of Reform’s most vocal fundraisers, having given £50,000 and declared her top political aim is taking Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Brexit-backing billionaire JCB boss Anthony Bamford, a longtime Tory “super-donor” and close ally of Boris Johnson, also joined the party’s benefactors. In late 2024, he picked up the bill for an £8,000 helicopter ride for Farage.

Crypto investor Christopher Harborne, known for funding both the Conservatives and Reform, has continued writing cheques or, more likely, their bitcoin equivalent.

In January 2025, Farage hosted a lavish fundraiser at the exclusive Mayfair members’ club Oswald’s. The event raised more than £1 million. Farage urged donors to “give us the ammunition,” and they obliged. Among them was Oswald’s owner Robin Birley, who had already donated £25,000 weeks earlier. Also in attendance was Mohamed Amersi, another former Tory donor, who paid £25,000 to attend and has got involved in setting up Resolute 1850, a think-tank that will help develop Reform policies.

Media backing: mainstream and alternative

As well as the backing of the mega rich, Farage benefits from a near-constant presence in the British media. His 38th appearance on BBC’s Question Time in December 2024 reignited criticism that the broadcaster has repeatedly amplified his voice far beyond his electoral standing. Even in his early days, the BBC gave Farage disproportionate airtime, seemingly driven more by his ability to provoke headlines and division than by any commitment to balanced, substantive debate.

Research from Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture shows a clear pattern. The most frequently featured journalists on Question Time are typically right-right opinion columnists writing for the Mail or the Telegraph, or media personalities from GB News and TalkTV. The Spectator exerts particularly outsized influence, with its writers making up the five most regular non-political panellists on the show.

Topping the list is journalist Isabel Oakeshott – GB News commentator, and partner of Reform UK’s Richard Tice – who was the most featured non-politician on Question Time from 2014 to 2023.

By contrast, voices from the left are notably absent. Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar and former Guardian columnist Giles Fraser have made just six and five appearances respectively over the same period, confirming the lopsided media landscape that continues to elevate Farage, his allies and their views.

One of the most enthusiastic media cheerleaders for Nigel Farage has long been the Daily Express. While other right-wing newspapers have shown more restraint (the Mail famously urging, “Stand aside, Nigel,” encouraging readers to pressure the Brexit Party not to stand in marginal seats and risk splitting the Tory vote) the Express has remained steadfastly loyal. It has dutifully parroted Farage’s every word, even urging readers in 2015 to vote UKIP to “keep Britain great.”

Even the more restrained Times crowned Farage its “Man of the Year” in 2014, albeit with the tone of someone holding their nose, acknowledging him as a genuinely game-changing figure in British politics.

Still, it was disappointing, if not surprising, to discover that Farage now has a column in the Telegraph.

Once a bastion of Conservative orthodoxy, the paper gave him a platform to declare, following the local elections: “Tories are in retreat as Reform marches on… nothing will be the same again.” He continued with characteristic bombast: “Many people will wonder how the strange death of the Conservative Party came about. In fact, there is no mystery.”

But Farage’s media reach doesn’t stop at the mainstream. His primetime spot on GB News, pulls in around three million viewers a month. On TikTok, his inflammatory videos on immigration and grooming gangs routinely rack up hundreds of thousands of views, often pushing past 300,000.

On the Elon Musk-owned X, even users who don’t support him – myself included – are inundated with Reform content. The platform’s algorithms, triggered by engagement regardless of intent, end up boosting his visibility to anyone who so much as pauses on one of his clips.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Farage and other Reform figures have been profiting directly from their online reach. By signing up to X’s monetisation scheme, designed to reward users for viral engagement, Farage, Lee Anderson, and Rupert Lowe earned over £10,000 since July. With 2.2 million followers, Farage was by far the biggest earner.

Reform’s recent success should serve as a wake-up call, not only for Labour, but for the broader left and the media.  The answer isn’t to chase Farage’s populist rhetoric or pander to clickbait politics. Instead, it lies in presenting a credible, serious alternative that addresses the real concerns of voters without capitulating to the divisive language of nationalism and culture wars.

The pushback against Faragemania must begin now. If it doesn’t, the pint-wielding provocateur could find himself with more real power than many ever imagined.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is author of Right-Wing Watch

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