Farage’s Trump bootlicking looks like costing him votes

Is Nigel Farage’s loyalty to Donald Trump – and by extension, the president’s chum Vladimir Putin – about to damage Reform’s impressive polling numbers?

On Monday, Clacton’s frequently absent MP used an interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari to end his media silence over the White House’s row with Volodymyr Zelensky. Farage refused to blame Trump and JD Vance for picking on Ukraine’s president, telling Ferrari that while “I’m not defending what they did”, the question was irrelevant.

He used far harsher tones to condemn Zelensky, saying he was “very unwise to tell the Americans what would happen to them if they didn’t back him… Yeah, sure, Vance and Trump bit back. But I think in diplomatic terms, Zelensky played it very badly.

“I wouldn’t expect a guest to be rude to me in my own house. Absolutely not. I would expect a guest with respect.”

Ignoring the fact that Winston Churchill had once turned up to the White House in wartime wearing a one-piece military jumpsuit, Farage railed against Zelensky’s attire during the meeting, saying: “If I turned up at the White House, I’d make sure I was wearing a suit, my shoes were cleaned.”

He added that Zelensky should make piece with Putin because “the truth is that the longer the war goes on, the more it suits Russia. And wars either end with a deal or they end in annihilation.”

The remarks have been condemned by political rivals, with shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel saying: “For Nigel Farage to sit there pointing the finger at Zelensky is both morally wrong and diplomatically counterproductive… like Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Reform UK seems to have history equivocating over Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.” Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called Farage “Trump’s own spokesman here in Britain”.

And in the Commons, responding to a question from Farage about whether British troops would end up serving in Ukraine, prime minister Keir Starmer told him: ““Can I just remind him – Russia is the aggressor. Zelensky is a war leader whose country has been invaded. And we should all be supporting him, and not fawning over Putin.”

More interesting though will be the verdict of the public. Farage’s party has led in seven of the 10 most recently published polls, and although two of those are from the new pollster Find Out Now, whose methodology is causing raised eyebrows among more established names, it seems safe to say that Reform is attracting support of 25% and up.

Yet in the last week, the pollster More in Common has seen support for Starmer overtaking that for Farage on the question “who would make the better prime minister?” Starmer has added six points, going up to 28%, while Farage stands still at 22%. A fortnight ago, the numbers were 26% Farage and 23% Starmer.

Backing Trump – still hugely unpopular with UK voters – over Zelensky may thus end up proving costly for Reform… although if Elon Musk changes his mind about giving the far right party $100m, perhaps Farage will see even sinking poll numbers as a price worth paying.