Farage fear factor

THE good folk of Britain are being warned that if they don’t behave, Nigel Farage (right) will return. He is the man who championed the cause of Brexit.

The consensus now seems to be that leaving the European Union has harmed Britain. I have spoken to a number of businessmen who say that although “Brexit is done” and the UK cannot rejoin the EU, the country will have to find some kind of accommodation with its biggest trading partner. Farage won’t like this very much.

One report says that “more than a quarter of British voters would consider voting for a new party led by Nigel Farage. A new poll shows that 12 per cent of the public would be very interested in backing a new venture if it were launched next year, while 16 per cent would be quite interested.”

Farage “refused to rule out the possibility of creating a new party and said he had been ‘overwhelmed’ by requests to do so from voters who have emailed him and approached him at the supermarket,” the report said. “The former UKIP leader stood down as head of the Brexit Party, which has been renamed Reform UK, in March 2021.”

The poll, conducted for the Daily Telegraph by Public First, “found that 38 per cent of Conservative voters would consider supporting a new party led by him, with 43 per cent of Brexiteers saying the same.

“Among those who would consider it, the most popular reason for doing so, among 62 per cent of respondents, was that ‘we need someone to stand up for ordinary British people’. Other popular reasons included that ‘we need to cut illegal immigration’ and ‘we just need real change’.”

One assumes these are the very people who thought Liz Truss was the leader Britain needed and her economic policies would take the country to a prosperous future.

Another report in the Daily Telegraph and elsewhere said: “Tens of thousands of Tory members will leave the party in anger at being denied a vote on the next leader. Rishi Sunak has been warned.

“Dozens of Tory members claimed on Twitter that they had left the party – with some saying they would join Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

“Samuel Jukes, a retail worker from Birmingham who joined the Tories in 2019 and was supporting Boris Johnson, said a general election should be called as Mr Sunak ‘has no mandate’.

“I’m fuming right now, we never voted for Rishi Sunak. He has no mandate.”

The reality is that Farage’s appeal has dwindled. Quite a few of those who voted Brexit come on to LBC with the same message: “It’s the worst mistake I’ve made.”

Curiously, Theresa May also had a “coronation” but did not trigger the threat of mass resignations. We must wonder why.