Farage nears the tipping point on race

He has tried to carefully draw a line to the right of the Tories without falling off the precipice and being lumped in with openly far right parties: the Tommy Robinsons and BNPs of the world.

Farage has looked to appeal to a part of the public that might not think of themselves as racist, and who generally wouldn’t use racial slurs, but certainly preferred it when you didn’t have to worry about “all that stuff”, and absolutely want an end to “all this immigration”.

This balancing act has always been a difficult one. It was made easier in the past, though, by the particular focus on Farage’s previous parties, which existed to fulfil one political goal and which then largely disbanded (Ukip still exists, but is a political irrelevance).

Ukip might have attracted people (and candidates) with extreme views, and even outright racists, but Farage could explain these away: his goal was to get the UK out of the European Union, and that’s what Ukip was for. 

He would usually then pivot at this point to suggesting that Ukip candidates were being made to look bad because they were attracting more scrutiny than those of other parties – suggesting some form of at least semi-malign plot to smear his candidates, in order to preserve EU membership. Because UKIP had a singular point of focus, Farage could distance himself from the extremes without having to openly disown them.

The Brexit Party was even more short-lived, and just as successful in its goal: because Farage and his crowd never bothered to learn the details of EU membership (let alone leaving), they failed to notice Boris Johnson’s exit deal was even worse than Theresa May’s. They endorsed it, came to a deal with the Tories, and dissipated.

Reform lacks any clear focal point. Farage is trying to say the party is trying to salvage a “betrayed” Brexit, but doesn’t have any clear ask to make in this subject. 

Instead, he’s trying to run a general-purpose political operation without having laid any groundwork. He’s got a grab bag of policies and a ruthless desire to try to exploit the Conservative Party’s once-in-a-century weakness for his own gain. 

Without the clear mission he’s had before, Farage can’t just duck the issue when his candidates or supporters are caught – as they were by Channel 4 News – being overtly racist.

The Conservative Party has been craven in confronting Farage for more than a decade, and this has only escalated coming into this general election. It took the prime minister himself being called a vile racial epithet to get him to react with any believable anger to Reform’s behaviour.

As we wrote last week, Nigel Farage has become America-pilled, and is attempting to bring the conspiratorial and divisive elements of Trumpism into British politics – which is hurting his popularity in the short term, but which could poison the very ground if it is allowed to take root.

Farage’s dance with the political mainstream over the last decade has been a delicate one, with precise and considered steps.

With his new, unfocused party and his increasingly belligerent and confrontational style, he is flailing ever more wildly.

As a result, Nigel Farage’s years-long balancing act flirting with the overtly racist right seems to be on the verge of lurching off the precipice.