Jahangir Mohammed discusses Nigel Farage’s politics and argues that one man’s toxic politics continues to shape the national political conversation and that Muslims, all people committed to a multi-cultural society, and the country should be worried.

Britain Has a Nigel Farage Problem

Nigel Farage has long since proven his ability to shape British politics. From leading the UK Independence Party (UKIP) into the Brexit referendum to heading Reform UK to victories in the 2025 local elections, Farage represents a continuing and serious threat to the very fabric of British politics and society.

His brand of populist, anti-immigration politics, characterised by xenophobic dog whistles, a relentless focus on Muslims, and connections to white nationalist networks in the United States, requires greater media scrutiny and coordinated political and community resistance.

Brexit and Its Aftermath: A Masterclass in Manufactured Hate

For the last 25 years, Farage has been the leading exponent of change outside Parliament, making him the most influential political force in UK politics.

The product of an elite public school but not a university graduate, he has a background as a city trader in metals. He transitioned from dealing in the City to peddling a specific brand of politics, and his big-city connections undoubtedly aided his political career.

Farage founded the UK Independence Party in 1993, and his rise to political prominence was forged in the furnace of anti-EU sentiment that he cultivated. His political career flourished when he was elected to the European Parliament in 1999.

As the charismatic frontman of UKIP, he played a key role in pushing the Conservative Party to promise the 2016 Brexit referendum. That vote, a narrow yet decisive break with the European Union, was supported by a campaign filled with misinformation, anti-immigrant propaganda, and racialised scaremongering. Most famously, the now-infamous “Breaking Point” poster depicted queues of migrants, primarily people of colour and Muslims. The next four years of UK politics were spent trying to finalise Brexit, resulting in political deadlock and turmoil in Britain. Farage established the Brexit Party in January 2019 and secured 29 seats in the European Parliament. In 2021, his party was rebranded as Reform to encompass a broader agenda.

The consequences of Brexit have been profound and enduring: economic stagnation, disrupted trade, labour shortages, rising costs due to EU tariffs, and weakened diplomatic ties. The promise of “taking back control” has resulted mainly in bureaucratic complexity and reduced global influence.  Brexit did not reduce migration or release more money for the NHS. Yet, Farage has escaped much of the blame, rebranding himself as a prophetic outsider instead of one of the primary architects of the national crisis. The media rarely hold him to account.

Reform UK: New Party, Same Poison.

Reform UK, Farage’s political successor to UKIP and the Brexit Party, was once seen as a fringe experiment. However, the 2024 general and 2025 local elections have altered that perception. Reform UK made significant strides, including a remarkable victory in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, overturning a longstanding Labour majority by just six votes. More notably, the party won the inaugural mayoral election in Greater Lincolnshire with Andrea Jenkyns, a defector from the Conservative Party. Reform UK also gained control of eight county councils in Tory strongholds and won 677 council seats.

These victories, while modest in absolute council seats, are politically seismic. They demonstrate that Farage’s messaging resonates, particularly in areas neglected by Westminster and overlooked by globalisation. The election results also require Labour and the Conservatives to confront their failure to provide a compelling alternative to Farage’s straightforward, scapegoating narratives.

The Populist Playbook: Migrants, Muslims, and Manufactured Crisis

Farage’s populism follows a now-familiar pattern: identify a scapegoat, manufacture a sense of crisis, and present himself as the only truth-teller. Migrants, Muslims, and multiculturalism are recurring targets. Whether warning of “Islamification” or calling for caps on immigration with dubious statistics, questioning “two-tier” policing, or smearing Turkish barbers with money laundering, or highlighting the criminality of migrants, Farage positions himself as the defender of a mythologised British identity and nativism.

His populism is not merely rhetorical; it is reckless and dangerous, as we witnessed with the anti-Muslim pogroms in 2024 following the tragic murders in Southport. Furthermore, it shapes policy. Mainstream parties, eager to halt their loss of support, have shifted rightward on immigration and multicultural policies. Labour’s migration stance, for instance, has hardened under pressure, while the Conservative Party has adopted similar rhetoric and increasingly punitive asylum policies. In this way, Farage’s politics reshapes the national agenda even when he is not in power.

The BNP in a Blazer? The Mainstreaming of the Politics of  Hate

It would be inaccurate to solely blame Nigel Farage for mainstreaming racism and anti-Muslim bigotry into national politics. However, what makes him uniquely dangerous is how successfully he laundered the talking points of the British National Party (BNP), EDL, and Britain First, openly fascist groups from the 2000s, making them politically palatable. Where the BNP spoke of “white pride,” Farage speaks of alien cultures and values, or Christian values. Whereas the far right warned of a Muslim “invasion,” Farage cautioned against a flood of migrants. While street-level groups like the EDL were crude and violent, Farage was media-trained and well-dressed. But the message remains the same: fear the foreigner, suspect the Muslim, and blame the migrant. They are all blamed for Britain’s decline and are considered alien and a threat to British culture and values. Farage and other British politicians like him didn’t merely replace the BNP; they made it obsolete. Why support a fringe thug when the establishment man in a suit delivers the same messages on national TV?

The Media Machine: GB News, TalkTV, and the BBC

Farage could not have achieved his political success without the support of the mainstream press and media.

Farage’s influence was cultivated by a media ecosystem that thrives on outrage. GB News gave him a nightly show and built an entire channel around his style of politics: culture war rage, anti-migrant conspiracy, and anti-Muslim dog-whistles.  TalkTV followed suit, turning him into a near-constant presence in the political media diet. But it’s not just the far-right channels. The BBC and mainstream outlets have platformed Farage for over a decade, giving him countless appearances on Question Time, Newsnight, and political panels, rarely holding him accountable for his misinformation, hate or proposed solutions.

With regular appearances on GB News and a vast social media following, he sidesteps traditional scrutiny and presents himself as an outsider truth-teller. These platforms enable him to propagate disinformation alongside anti-Muslim and anti-migrant talking points with minimal accountability. Farage has long understood that media attention is more powerful than political office. And the press and media gave him the keys by uncritically pumping out his narratives and division.

Transatlantic Connections: The White Nationalist Pipeline

Farage’s influence is not limited to the UK. He has long-standing ties with far-right and white nationalist movements in the United States. He appeared multiple times at CPAC, a key event in the MAGA-aligned Republican calendar. He has met with Steve Bannon, praised Donald Trump, and adopted talking points common to the alt-right, particularly around “globalist elites,” immigration, and the supposed demise of Western civilisation.

This ideological convergence is no accident. Both Farage and the US white identitarians share a vision of ethno-nationalist populism that centres on cultural purity, anti-immigration, and the delegitimisation of democratic institutions. Reform UK’s internal problems reflect this alignment: several of its candidates have been exposed for sharing anti-Muslim content, promoting conspiracy theories, and endorsing white nationalist ideologues.

While Farage claims to be cracking down on extremist elements, this is seen as mainly cosmetic. His base is attracted to these ideas, and his politics provides a respectable front for their mainstreaming.

The Consequences for Society

The Farage effect goes beyond the ballot box. His brand of politics corrodes trust in institutions, poisons public discourse, and emboldens hate. In the aftermath of last summer’s anti-Muslim riots, British Muslims have increasingly reported harassment and feel under siege in a political climate that too often treats them as suspects or aliens. Asylum seekers, already fleeing trauma, are met with a hostile environment reinforced by Farage-style narratives.

Moreover, Farage’s rhetoric fosters division by creating a zero-sum narrative where one group’s gain equates to another’s loss. This situation undermines solidarity within communities and fuels resentment. By inflaming problems instead of solving them, he thrives on social fragmentation.

Conclusion

Nigel Farage has proven to be a shrewd manipulator of public sentiment, media narratives, and political crises. He is not a fringe figure; he is a profoundly influential actor who has shaped—and continues to shape—Britain’s political direction. His Brexit politics and comments have contributed to significant tensions and divisions in British society. His success in the 2025 local elections is not just a warning shot; it confirms that his politics remain dangerously potent. He has contributed to the destruction of a decaying Tory Party and is now gunning for the Labour Party.

Let’s face reality: Reform is little more than Nigel Farage, and left unchecked, he and his powerful friends in the media and the US pose the greatest danger to British society and politics. The sad part of the story is that one of the key financiers of Reform’s dangerous and poisonous politics is a Muslim.

The enduring image in my mind of Nigel Farage is his last appearance in the European Parliament, a little Englander waving the Union Jack flag, telling Europeans how Great Britain would be without them.  It didn’t quite work out that way! Blaming others and populism do not solve complex problems. Reform and Farage pose serious risks to the UK. Resisting Farage and Reform requires more than condemnation and exposure. It demands strategic and organised action at multiple levels.

It seems that the only organisation to conduct a serious risk assessment of Nigel Farage’s politics was his Bank Coutts (see extract below). Maybe it’s time that others in politics and society did so.