Look! Over there! Nigel Farage wants to talk about this instead of the riots!

What could have led Nigel Farage, who spread misinformation about the Southport killings which then played its part in sparking widespread violence and riots across England and Northern Ireland, to be keen to move on and talk about other things?

The Reform Party leader, who has faced widespread criticism and tanking personal poll ratings since disseminating false ‘facts’ in the run-up to days of violent disorder, has told a newspaper that he will demand a referendum on leaving the European Convention of Human Rights and the court that applies it.

Farage, whose erroneous remarks came at the start of disturbances which have resulted in over 1,000 arrests, over 500 people charged and over 100 jailed, said in the i that he would now be “pushing this ECHR thing very hard… politically this is actually more sensitive and more emotive than EU membership itself”.

Attacking judges in Strasbourg rather than continuing to shout about what he has described as an “invasion” of migrants from countries riddled with “terrorism… gang culture and war zones” seems to signal a shift in tactics by Farage, who in a recent poll was held responsible for the recent civil disorder by 51% of respondents.

Much like the sharing of inaccurate rumours during febrile times, leaving the ECHR would have devastating consequences. It would threaten the Good Friday Agreement which has brought peace to Northern Ireland, put at risk the UK/EU trade and co-operation agreement, strengthen the case for border polls in Scotland and on the island of Ireland and make the UK a pariah in the international community, standing with Russia and Belarus as the only European states to be outside the ECHR.

Given this dire outlook – and the fact that a YouGov poll in June showed 54% of Britons in favour of staying in the ECHR with only 23% against – it’s a strange bandwagon to jump on for the man whose loose lips led to the Twitter hashtag #FarageRiots.

We can only speculate as to what might have led to this seeming switch of emphasis by Farage, whose promotion of an untrue conspiracy theory has seen his favourability rating drop to minus 29 in one recent poll, and who in another poll was less popular among 2024 Conservative voters than every single Tory leadership candidate other than Mel Stride. Perhaps we’ll find out when he returns from his latest visit to the USA, where he will be busy promoting the benefits of Clacton.

For now though, the reason that Nigel Farage – shamed for promulgating unfounded gossip, blamed in polls for fuelling the riots and apparently now turning off the very voters who he must appeal to in order to push his party forward – wants to talk about Strasbourg must remain a mystery.