London: A car crash video has just confirmed a basic truth of British politics: yelling at Nigel Farage does not stop him.
The video showed a woman driving past the Reform UK leader while he stood on a footpath with a group of local residents near the English town of Clacton.
The driver then did what many critics of the right-wing populist want to do. She yelled abuse that sounded like one word: “wanker”. And then she crashed her car. She drove her small grey Vauxhall into the BMW in front of her, seeing too late that it was stopped at a traffic light.
“She won’t be doing that again,” Farage said on the video, which appeared to be taken by one of his supporters on Tuesday.
He also posted the video on social media, adding: “That’s what you call instant karma.”
John Lennon would no doubt wince at his song title being used by a politician who is reviled by progressive Britain for leading the country out of the European Union, declaring the country to be broken, warning against asylum seekers and vowing to slash migration.
But Farage put the video to good use, laughing at his critics as his post on X reached five million people.
There’s no doubt Farage has challenges ahead. He has just quit his constituency of Clacton and dared his critics to run against him in a byelection, only to discover that his main opponent will be a man who wears a rubbish bin on his head for a laugh. The big mystery about the contest is whether Count Binface can keep the joke from going stale by polling day on August 13.
And the Clacton byelection is only being forced on voters because Farage was angry about an independent inquiry into donations he received from dubious sources, not least George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto investor known as “Posh George” and once convicted of fraud. That’s awkward. The inquiry will resume when, as is likely, he returns to the House of Commons.
But yelling at Farage does not work, as the woman in the small grey car learned to her cost. The Labour government thought it could dismiss Farage but has instead crumbled in the face of his attacks and its own mistakes over the past two years. The toppling of Keir Starmer as prime minister and the urgent elevation of Andy Burnham in his place prove this point.
Farage seems to gain power when pilloried – a trait he shares with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson. Most attacks on him only make him stronger by amplifying his message. This is most obvious when he is publicly flayed for the harshness of his immigration policy, such as his desire to deport asylum seekers. For many voters, the harshness is the point.
Farage is unlike Hanson, however, in at least two ways. Firstly, he has a better grasp of the political spectrum. He knows that fringe figures on the far right, like protest agitator Tommy Robinson, scare the public with their sheer aggression. Farage has frozen out Robinson and others like him. Hanson, by contrast, will not admit she made a mistake when she befriended Robinson on her recent visit to England.
Secondly, he is a far more capable advocate than Hanson. He is a good public speaker and knows how to mix humour with his dire warnings about the future. This is partly because he has a big ego and wants to entertain, even if he’s short of useful policies to fix broken Britain.
When Farage spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in London one week ago, roaming the stage without a lectern or notes, he mocked Burnham for looking down at his notes too often during a recent speech.
“I put it to you that if a political leader is incapable of standing before an audience and stringing a couple of sentences together, they might be doing the job more out of personal ambition than out of conviction and belief in the country,” said Farage.
When Burnham appeared in Downing Street three days later to formally take the job of prime minister, he made a point of speaking to the media without a lectern or notes. It was a small sign of the way Burnham has to lift his game in the attempt to beat his populist rival.
The opinion polls have Farage in front, although it is too soon to measure the honeymoon period for Burnham. The latest YouGov survey, dated July 20, suggested Reform had 23 per cent support, ahead of Labour on 20 per cent and the Conservative Party on 21 per cent. The Reform vote slipped by two percentage points over the previous two weeks.
The wild card in British politics is Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who has the potential to demolish Farage if she can lift her party’s vote above his.
Burnham should be able to see off the threat from Farage. Labour has 403 seats in the House of Commons, while Reform has seven. The next general election is not due until August 2029. A serious party of government should be able to hold its nerve.
So far, however, Burnham is yet to really take on Farage where it counts. The new prime minister has outlined three new policies. He has temporarily scrapped the 5 per cent consumption tax on electricity bills, capped bus fares at £2 ($3.80), and cut business taxes on pubs and clubs by 20 per cent.
All three policies are practical, popular and have a symbolic impact. They are aimed at showing voters that Burnham “gets” the need to act on the cost of living. And nobody should be blamed for wanting to save British pubs.
Burnham’s real challenge, however, is to come up with an economic growth plan without breaking the national budget when debt is high and the bond markets are nervous. Just as importantly, he has to respond to community anxiety about migration when 70 per cent of voters think the intake is too high.
The simple fact is that Labour has not “stopped the boats”. On Wednesday, another 172 asylum seekers arrived in three boats from France, collected by UK border officials in the English Channel.
About 36,000 people arrived by small boat in the year to the end of May. This was down 13 per cent on the previous year, but many voters want more drastic action.
Voters may rally to Burnham if the new prime minister can prove he has a growth agenda and can fix the nation’s problems.
They may tire of Farage if an independent inquiry uncovers more about those dubious donations. But they are unlikely to respond to yelling in the street.
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
