NIGEL FARAGE'S 'GLADIATORS' STRATEGY

Whether you agree or disagree with Nigel Farage’s leadership of Reform, in order to properly understand why he acts as he does you need to remember the truism: “all of us are shaped by our experiences and understanding of them”.

Some people approve of Reform recruiting defectors from other parties, whereas others do not - although generally this seems to be more based on their opinion of the defector rather than a rigid point of principle.

As the roll call of defectors grows longer, and the pace seems to quicken, many are beginning to push back, arguing that if Reform is to be a truly revolutionary party it cannot be filled with political retreads but should, instead, be composed purely of untainted insurgents. Those who are responsible for Britain’s problems cannot be trusted to solve them, they say. Political virgins are better than experienced failures, they claim.

This is a persuasive argument. And yet Nigel Farage has repeatedly maintained that Reform’s lack of experienced politicians is its weakness, and that it must people who know their way around the corridors of Westminster. So why is this? And is he right or wrong?

During the press conference introducing Robert Jenrick as a new Reform recruit, Nigel Farage briefly opened a window into his soul, allowing us to see the monster that gives him nightmares. No journalist picked up on this, so I am doing so for you.

Farage mentioned that when he was a UKIP MEP he got to know the Italian political party known as the 5 Star Movement (which was a member of the same group as UKIP in the European Parliament) and he did not want Reform to take the same path, and suffer the same fate, as they did. So let me tell you about them, as this is important.

There once was a second-rate Italian TV comic called Beppe Grillo. Think of him as an Italian Les Dennis or Noel Edmonds. He became increasingly politically engaged and contemptuous of the existing political establishment. So finally, in 2009, he launched his own political party – the 5 Star Movement – which achieved immediate electoral success. But the thing is this: because Grillo was so disgusted by the existing political parties and politicians he forbade any of them from joining. He insisted that only political neophytes could join – those he deemed clean, pure and untainted.

In the 2013 general election it got 25% of the vote, more than any other single party. But that was its problem: it was a single party, and all the other political parties were in coalitions – either on the Left or the Right. But Grillo prided himself on being independent (in fact, he hated normal politics so much he even refused to stand for election himself) and his manifesto was a hotchpotch of Left- and Right-wing policies. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to take the best policies from across the political spectrum, without being rigidly dogmatic, but you do need to have a unifying philosophy, and the 5 Star Movement did not have this.

So after the election, which left Italian politics with a hung parliament and a right mess, lengthy negotiations took place, but the 5 Star Movement could not agree to be involved in any government alliance, and ultimately was frozen out and, instead, a ragbag of left-wing parties joined together to govern the country. At that point the 5 Star Movement began to disintegrate, with several of its MPs leaving to join other parties, on both the Left and Right. The party survived however and with the failure of the left-wing government, and the public growing ever more unhappy with politics, it actually grew even stronger, and at the next general election (in 2018) it gained a third of the votes. This time it was too big to be left out of a government coalition and, indeed, it became the main party of government. But their lack of either ideological consistency or experience, and their gross political and administrative incompetence meant that their first alliance – with the right-wing League – was soon dissolved, and their next alliance – with the left-wing Democratic Party – also eventually failed. They were thus exposed as complete numpties and at that point the Italian people realised they were not the answer and so at the following election (in 2022) their vote collapsed. They have never been in government again (even though, like the LibDems here, they still retain a small but devoted following of deluded morons) and have moved ever more leftwards.

So that, dear reader, is the example that Nigel Farage is determined to avoid. A party that was so obsessed with rejecting anyone who had any political baggage that in the end it was unable to govern and was an ignominious failure.

So instead Farage has adopted what I call the ‘Gladiators’ strategy: recruit a varied collection of star fighters.

There are those who have raised a couple of objections to this. The first is that not everyone agrees on who qualifies as a ‘star fighter’, with Nadine Dorries and Nadhim Zahawi probably being the most criticised. Neither would feature in any cabinet that I would put together – but I don’t think they will feature in any Farage cabinet either. Dorries was recruited partly because at the time Farage was being criticised for not having enough women on board, but mainly because she has a regular weekly column in the Daily Mail. This is one of the most important papers for Reform (together with the Telegraph and the Sun) and so she is a great recruiting-sergeant for the party.

Zahawi was even more problematic to the party base. Whereas airhead Dorries was met with a rolling of the eyes, Zahawi provoked real anger, being the man who was put in charge of the Covid vaccine rollout. His supporters will say that he was just following scientific advice, and the orders of the prime minister, and that his ‘crime’ is that he was too good at the task he was given. His detractors on the other hand will say that he should have been more sceptical of an unproven technology (mRNA ‘vaccines’) and less dogmatic about injecting everyone without a proper evaluation of the risks and benefits. Personally, I side with the latter viewpoint. Farage himself has said: “I believe in vaccinations when they’re vaccinations. I don’t think what happened with Covid were vaccinations“, but clearly thinks this is all water under the bridge.

Nigel Farage clearly also underestimated the anger that many people still harbour for what happened during the Covid crisis. I suspect that his rationale for recruiting Zahawi was that he was a former Chancellor and that Reform needs more economic credibility, and also that Zahawi is a very well connected businessman and proven fundraiser. Indeed, twice during their press conference Farage commented directly to Zahawi that he expected him to help bring in funds, and although he said this with his customary chortle you can be sure that he was deadly serious. As to the future, I doubt that Zahawi will be a parliamentary candidate for Reform; it is much more likely that he will be elevated to that politicians’ rest home known as the House of Lords, where the party is desperate for some representation.

The second criticism of the Gladiators strategy is that there is some sort of dishonour in switching parties and that those who do so cannot be trusted. Really? Would you say this of those famous switchers Winston Churchill and Enoch Powell?

The most idiotic criticism of those who defect from one party to another is that they are ‘traitors’ who have ‘betrayed’ their party. This argument presupposes that one should have loyalty to a political party, something I absolutely reject. A political party is just a means of achieving an end. It is simply a vehicle for governing a country. And that’s the point: a politician’s loyalty should be to the country – not to his political party. Indeed, I would say that it is those politicians who are loyal to their party rather than the country who are the real traitors.

A political party is a tool, nothing more. Loyalty to a party which is not doing its job is like being ‘loyal’ to a hammer when you really need a screwdriver. It is utter nonsense. So not only are those who criticise defecting MPs wrong in their logic, they actually represent all that is wrong in politics itself. Fuck the party: think of the country.

And who can blame any genuinely patriotic politician who decides to leave the Conservative party? Not only are the Tories awash with lefties who would prevent the party from ever governing from the Right, but patriots are not only out-numbered – they are unwanted. Just listen to Kemi Badenoch’s response to Robert Jenrick leaving. She said: “I am cleaning out the rubbish from the Conservative Party”. This just shows what a nasty, spiteful, arrogant and deceitful woman she is. Jenrick was on her front bench (so she is saying she appoints “rubbish” as shadow ministers!) but was also the most popular shadow minister with the party rank and file – even more popular than Badenoch herself. What patriot would want to be in a party where they are considered “rubbish” by their own leader?

So where does Reform go now? Farage has said that 7th May is the cut-off date for those wishing to defect to Reform. This is very sensible. I have previously explained that one of the most important things Farage must do is appoint a shadow cabinet. People want to know who will be doing what, and shadow ministers must be free to speak and decide policy for their allocated responsibilities. It is important that this top team is appointed as soon as possible, so if any experienced MPs are to be accommodated in it then they must move soon, or it will be too late for them to be selected for a portfolio.

I am expecting a few more defections, both from Labour as well as the Tories, and both sitting MPs and former ones. We have been promised a former Labour MP this week, and as for Tories, I think Suella Braverman, Katie Lam, Esther McVey and Sir John Hayes are all possibilities.

Any of these would strengthen the Reform team, but is important for Reform’s image to be settled long before the next election, and while defecting MPs can be exciting they can also be unsettling. So let’s get all the defections over with and then we can see the team in action and get a feel for where the party is going. This is clearly Farage’s strategy for Reform. Let’s see where it takes them!

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