At last night’s Spectator Parliamentarian Awards, presented by new editor Michael Gove, the “Newcomer of the Year” gong went to Nigel Farage, who assured the crowd that “we will win the next election”. But is Farage’s Reform party really the political operation he thinks it is?
Take Rupert Lowe, for example, the Reform MP for Great Yarmouth, who scored a tremendous own-goal against his own side in the Commons yesterday as the House voted on a bill to introduce proportional representation in parliamentary elections. PR is one of Reform’s stated policies – and so of course Lowe voted against it.
Meanwhile, Farage’s number two, Richard Tice, was on Sky News talking about James McMurdock, the Reform MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock. In 2006, McMurdock was convicted for assaulting his girlfriend. His account of the incident was: “We argued and I pushed her. She fell over and she was hurt.”
The Sky presenter Sophie Ridge told Tice that court documents obtained by the Times say that he kicked her “around four times” outside a Chelmsford nightclub. What did he have to say about that?
“I wasn’t there on the night,” said Tice. “I’m trusting James. He’s bang on the money. He was there. The court wasn’t there.”
“But the victim was there,” observed Ridge.
“Do you trust the law?” asked the bungling Tice, losing patience.
“The law said he was guilty,” replied Ridge. And she was right. McMurdock spent 21 days in a young offenders’ institution. Tice had thoroughly outwitted himself.
Reform is a morally bankrupt, chaotic mess. If Farage can’t even control the four other MPs in his party, what hope does he have of running the country?
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