Farage: I can be bridge for Labour and US
Ex-ukip leader wants to play link man between Starmer and Trump if both win forthcoming elections ‘All I’m struck by is that we have an incoming Labour government ... who have no affinity to Trump’
NIGEL FARAGE has suggested he would be willing to work alongside a Labour government as a trade envoy if Donald Trump became president.
The former Ukip leader predicted his friend Mr Trump would win the US presidential election and said he would be “very interested” to work with Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader.
Mr Farage made the claims during a wide-ranging question-and-answer session presented by the Telegraph Politics newsletter with Camilla Tominey, The Telegraph’s associate editor, and dozens of Telegraph subscribers.
“All I’m struck by is that we have an incoming Labour government – 99 per cent certain, according to [Prof Sir] John Curtice – who have no affinity to Trump’s form of conservatism whatsoever,” he said.
“There’s no way around it, our relationship with America on defence is absolutely crucial. In terms of trade, we are still the biggest foreign investor in America, they are the biggest foreign investor here.
“There needs to be some sort of envoy between an incoming Labour government with people like David Lammy – who’s probably going to the foreign secretary, who’s been really quite abusive about Trump.”
Asked whether he wanted to be “Starmer’s man in Washington”, Mr Farage said: “That isn’t going to happen. It may well be the other way round. But I do think in the national interest there needs to be an intermediary between Trump and an incoming Labour government. And if I can help with that, I’d be very interested to do so.”
Mr Farage said he had not spoken directly to Sir Keir about such a possibility, but had held talks with “other people around the Labour Party”, adding: “If it’s not me, they need someone to be an intermediary. Not an ambassador, but someone a little more covert.”
Asked directly whether Mr Trump had offered him a job, he quipped: “I can’t remember.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Farage also predicted Reform UK would win more votes than the Conservative Party at the next general election.
Accusing the Tories of blowing the 80-seat majority they won at the 2019 general election despite having “the world at their feet”, he said: “I think Reform will get, with or without me, more votes than the Conservatives at the next election, in terms of numbers.
“How that transpires in terms of seats is absolutely anybody’s guess. But I can see the momentum. May 2 [the local elections] is going to be a disaster for the Conservatives.”
Mr Farage ruled out joining the Tory party “even if they asked me”, while also pouring cold water on the prospect of a “dream ticket” with Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, and insisting they would not agree on anything.
When asked about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr Farage noted the casualty count was now “just about equivalent to the Battle of the Somme” and called for negotiations aimed at ending the conflict.
“We can keep giving weapons to Ukraine, the stalemate can continue and Putin has completely reshaped the Russian economy, it’s about the war or nothing else, or we can have negotiations.
“I think we have to have negotiations and I think Trump will go for those negotiations… What is the endgame of this, what is the goal? If we think it’s a Ukrainian victory, that’s for the birds.”
Mr Farage also paid tribute to Margaret Thatcher on the 11th anniversary of the death of the Iron Lady, praising her as a “fighter”. He said: “If there’s a similarity, it’s fighting for things that may not be trendy today, but may well be tomorrow.”
It came as Richard Tice, the Reform UK leader, warned candidates not to get drunk and post on social media after the party ditched several would-be MPS for a string of offensive comments. In the past week, the party has dropped five candidates for social media posts branded racist, sexist and homophobic.
Taking questions at a press conference in central London, where he was setting out his party’s plans for NHS reform, Mr Tice was asked how confident he was that he wouldn’t have to drop more aspiring MPS.
“We’re very clear to all our candidates, for heaven’s sake… if you’re going to have a glass on a Friday night, then don’t use social media.
“It’s not sensible. And if someone lets us down hereafter, then frankly, if it’s inappropriate, if it’s unacceptable, then we’re going to part company.
“So you can have your freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but that doesn’t mean you have the right to represent Reform UK as a parliamentary candidate, because that’s our choice.”