Reform use Remembrance Day to score political points

To most of us, Remembrance Day is a time for quiet reflection on the horrors of war and the nature of service and sacrifice. For others, though, it’s an opportunity to score cheap political points.

Step forward journalist Isabel Oakeshott, the partner of Reform deputy leader Richard Tice. “Why was @Nigel_Farage banned from laying a wreath at the Cenotaph today, alongside other party leaders? He’ll be seething, and rightly so!!” she posted on Twitter/X.

But the Reform leader was not banned. As Oakeshott could have found out had she spent three seconds Googling it, a 40-year-old agreement stipulates that only leaders of parties with more than six MPs take part in the annual ceremony. It’s the same reason that the Greens were not represented at the Cenotaph either.

Tice was similarly fuming at being excluded. “We got more votes than Lib Dems, SNP and DUP combined. Yet they all laid wreaths… shameful stitch-up” he posted, later bleating that the Northern Ireland party had been invited to the ceremony despite also having five seats.

Again, a bit of research would have revealed that the DUP’s place was down to the rules of the event, which say: “To ensure all four constituent parts of the UK can always be represented, the party with the most sitting MPs from each of the devolved nations should be given the opportunity to lay a wreath (including if that party has fewer than six seats).”

Farage moaned about the decision in his usually weaselly style, telling GB News: “I personally am not complaining but other people are.”

Meanwhile in Farage’s constituency of Clacton, the local council reported that their own commemorations had included “veterans, councillors and residents… joined by representatives of the Armed Forces, uniformed youth organisations and others.”

There was no mention of the local MP – surely an omission the patriotic Farage will want them to correct at the soonest opportunity. Unless, of course, he didn’t turn up.