‘ Celeb’ Farage wins hearts of Tory faithful

MORE good news for Nigel Farage, who — it was reported last week — is being paid a record fee of £1.5 million to appear in the next series of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity . . .

A poll published yesterday by Tory- supporting news website ConservativeHome showed that seven out of ten party members would be keen to welcome Farage back into the fold should he reapply to become a Tory member.

It’s a marked change since 2014, when barely a third of the members were in favour of the party forming an alliance with Farage’s Ukip.

In its report, Conservative Home says:

‘The shift in sentiment about the former Ukip leader is unmistakable. What’s changed? First, the EU referendum.

‘ Most of our panel will have been for Brexit, and see

Farage as being on the same side. Next, celebrity: he is morphing into one.

‘Finally, his appalling treatment by Coutts [bank] exemplified the pervasiveness of woke capitalism — and his canny fightback conveyed a sense of a man who gets things done.’

Farage attended the Conservative Party Conference last month for the first time since 1988, having quit the Tories in 1992 in protest over then PM John Major’s signing the Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union.

His popularity could be further boosted by his appearance on I’m A Celebrity. It is not unprecedented for a politician to claw back their reputation by publicly humiliating themselves on the ITV reality show’s bushtucker trials.

Indeed, disgraced former Health Secretary Matt Hancock proved a highly unlikely hit last year, eventually finishing in third place.