In a Fracturing UK, Nigel Farage Emerges as Nationalist Nemesis
With the UK government in crisis, the specter of a Reform leadership one day is shifting the political dynamic in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage outside Havering Town Hall following the 2026 local election results on May 8.
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesAs the driving force behind Brexit, Nigel Farage was naturally elated when the UK voted to leave the European Union. “I’ve got my country back,” he declared. A decade later, Farage is at the center of more political upheaval, but this time it raises the question over whether the country he got back can actually survive at all.
The rise of Farage and his anti-EU, anti-immigration Reform UK has thrown Prime Minister Keir Starmer into a political crisis following a disastrous set of election results for the governing Labour Party. Yet the votes also revealed a different sort of rebellion that’s given fresh momentum to efforts to break apart the United Kingdom.