Now may be the time to take on Boris Johnson’s “abject” leadership head-on, Nigel Farage told Breitbart News, as rumours swirl about his plans to activate the planned Reform Party and return to front-line politics.
Nigel Farage revealed to Breitbart News Daily on Sirius XM Patriot on Monday that, amidst the speculation, he was certainly considering a return to front-line politics. As the British political establishment once again finds itself in a state of confused paralysis, Mr Farage said he could give it a “good kicking politically”.
British press speculated at the weekend that Mr Farage was on the verge of activating the Reform Party, a name he registered with the government’s electoral commission last year but has kept dormant. In light of those reports, Breitbart News Daily host Alex Marlow asked the Brexit leader what was coming next.
While Mr Farage sidestepped answering the question directly, he made clear that present UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was severely underperforming and something would have to be done. He told Breitbart News: “Boris’s leadership has been abject. There is one mitigating factor, which is, of course, is that he was very seriously ill just a few weeks ago.
“He could have died — we need to understand that… [but] It would seem with coronavirus we were too slow into lockdown, and we’re too slow out of lockdown. On China, he still seems to think Huawei is acceptable having some sort of role within our 5G system. At every level, Boris is not providing proper leadership.”
On his track record, Mr Farage admitted there was a precedent of him coming out of semi-retirement to force political change. He said: “Now, of course, people remember that having done my bit with UKIP, having got the referendum, having helped to win it, I did come back last year to try and save the situation with the Brexit Party because the Tories had made such a mess of it. There’s a level of media speculation which says: ‘Nigel is going to come back again and give the establishment a good kicking politically.’
“All I will say is: let’s watch, let’s wait, let’s see. I haven’t yet decided that the time is right, but it may be.”
Abbott to Farage: Bojo Needs His ‘Mojo’, Must Start Sending Back Illegal Boat Migrants to France https://t.co/5M6nyiaJuw
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 2, 2020
Mr Farage last re-entered politics in early 2019 when Brexit was becalmed in the doldrums, its progress frustrated by years of mismanagement by Theresa May’s government. He founded a new political party — the Brexit Party — and led it to victory in the national European Parliament election just six weeks later.
As Farage pushed the Conservative Party over target — and Theresa May out of office — it was taken over by Boris Johnson, who fought and won the December 2019 general election on a pro-Brexit platform. But just as Theresa May’s government was not capable, by inclination, to deliver Brexit, so Boris Johnson’s new government finds itself unequal to the — clearly unanticipated by them — culture wars suddenly sweeping Western nations.
As important historical monuments, including the statue of Winston Churchill, said to be Boris Johnson’s hero and role model, were vandalised by hard-left activists, Downing Street remained silent. Mr Farage reflected in his Breitbart News Daily interview: “…it has taken him nearly ten days to properly condemn those who didn’t just pull down a statue of somebody involved in the slave trade. They defaced, for two consecutive days, Winston Churchill’s statue, and they even defaced our national war memorial, to the one and a half million killed in two world wars. And it has taken Boris ten days to properly respond.”
Having won the Brexit wars for Britain, Mr Farage this week leaves the door open on the question of whether he will fight in its culture wars, too. He has certainly already skirmished on this matter, pointing to the hard-left Marxist programme of change being promoted by the Black Lives Matter UK organisation. As Breitbart London reported on Monday, Mr Farage was particularly clear on the threat to freedom of speech and freedom of thought.
Speaking to Breitbart News, the Brexit leader reflected: “It seems that the real threat we face now is a genuine threat to free speech. I have never known a time when, in the United Kingdom — which is famed for its huge breadth of media commentary and views — I have never seen so many people so scared to write and say and speak and broadcast what they think. It really is very disturbing.”
"I have never known a time when, in the UK — which is famed for its huge breadth of media commentary and views — I have never seen so many people so scared to write and say and speak and broadcast what they think. It really is very disturbing." https://t.co/QZSvex6aE1
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 15, 2020
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