Nigel Farage Is Not as Teflon as He Thinks

The battle last week between the cheeky life-chancer Nigel Farage and the sober former state prosecutor Keir Starmer was never going to be much of a contest.

Working-class and lower middle-class British voters turned out in force for Farage’s hard-right Reform UK. In local and regional elections that were treated by politicians and public alike as a midterm referendum on the government, some abandoned the prime minister’s Labour party, some came to Reform from the Conservatives, others who seldom vote made their protest against the status quo. In Wales, Reform pushed Labour into third place in its historic heartland, with the nationalist Plaid Cymru out in front. In left-leaning Scotland, where the Faragists had struggled to make a mark, the party equaled Scottish Labour in seats, both behind the Scottish National Party.