Nigel Farage blames 'stupid' candidates as Reform UK stalls in polls

Nigel Farage's Reform UK has been beset by problems over its candidates' controversial views

Nigel Farage suspects Reform UK's popularity has dipped because of “too many candidates" saying "stupid things”.

The right-wing party edged ahead of Rishi Sunak’s ailing Conservatives in some polling earlier this month with the election approaching. But support for Reform – which has been beset with problems over its candidates’ controversial views – appears to have dropped off.

It comes as Reform UK’s candidate fighting in a seat against cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch quit the party earlier this month after it emerged he had previously urged people to vote BNP. In another recent case, one the party's candidates defended calling Adolf Hitler "brilliant" at inspiring people.

Meanwhile, Mr Farage himself has come under fire over his suggestion that the West “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now the Reform leader says he thinks the party’s recent drop off is because "we've just had too many candidates who've said stupid things".

Asked about Reform UK's slight drop off in the polls and whether it was down to his comments on Vladimir Putin, Mr Farage told ITV News: "I've made no comments about President Putin whatsoever. What I've said is ten years ago I predicted what might happen. I've been wilfully, wilfully misinterpreted on this.

"Look, they hate me because I was opposed to the Iraq war, I was opposed to the Libyan war and I was opposed to what I saw then as an unnecessary geo-political mistake... Sometimes people don't like inconvenient truths, that's been used against me, I understand that.

"I think the other thing that's perhaps had a bigger impact is we've just had too many candidates who've said stupid things. I think that's perhaps the reason that we've dropped off a little bit."

In an interview with the BBC broadcast last Friday, Mr Farage was challenged, including over naming Putin as the world leader he most admired in 2014. "I said I disliked him as a person, but admired him as a political operator because he's managed to take control of running Russia," Mr Farage said.

The ex-UKIP leader was also pressed over his claim in February 2022 that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was "a consequence of EU and Nato expansion". He said he had argued since the 1990s that "the ever eastward expansion" of NATO and the EU was giving Putin "a reason to [give to] his Russian people to say they're coming for us again and to go to war". He added: "We provoked this war. Of course, it's [President Putin's] fault."

Separately, Mr Farage welcomed former Newcastle United football club chairman and Tory donor Sir John Hall as a new backer of his party. Speaking at an event near Sunderland – bitter rivals of the Magpies – Mr Farage: “I'm going to ask you to put football rivalries aside for a moment, I'm delighted that joining us today, supporting us, giving us a donation after decades of publicly supporting the Conservatives, somebody who has been a phenomenal, amazing success story, indeed role model for people in the North East, with us today, supporting us, with us now is Sir John Hall."

And, using inflammatory language, Mr Farage also told the audience “something about our culture is directly under threat" as a result of immigration. He said: "We've accepted, absolutely, since the late 1940s that immigration into Britain can be a good thing. Certainly the choice of food in most of our towns is rather better as a result of it.

"But what has happened over the course of the last 25 years is something entirely different. It is mass migration on a level that in fact begins, not just to divide and damage communities and potentially to set people apart from each other - which is dangerous, but also I think a feeling that perhaps something about our culture is directly under threat, that sense of who we are and this is a problem."

Mr Farage added: "Access to a GP is pretty much impossible at short notice, and housing has become for most young people simply an unobtainable dream - and rents are up by 20-30% across the country in the last four years. It's a simple demand-supply equation and that's why I've said from the start, this really should be the immigration election."

YouGov polling conducted 12-13 June showed Reform UK on 19% – a point ahead of the Tories. However, YouGov’s Westminster voting intention (24-25 June) has Reform UK on 17%, a point behind the Conservatives on 18%, with Labour well ahead on 36%.

In April, the Sunday Mirror exposed the vile and frightening views of some would-be Reform UK MPs. In the same month, the Sunday Mirror revealed how a Reform UK candidate shared a stage with a Hitler fan.