Nigel Farage turns on Marine Le Pen

Ooh la la! After a tricky few weeks for Reform UK, leader Nigel Farage has aimed his sights towards the old enemy. Reform’s polling figures first dipped following that Nick Robinson interview and in recent days Farage has faced serious questions over the behaviour of both candidates and activists. The party’s former candidate in Erewash, Liam Booth-Isherwood, yesterday disowned the outfit and backed his Tory rival instead. Now, as he battles to keep momentum up ahead of 4 July, Farage has distanced himself from fellow Eurosceptic Marine Le Pen.

Following yesterday’s Reform rally – with 4,500 attendees in tow – the leader used an interview with Unherd to distance himself from Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN). Attacking her fiscal policy, he claimed: ‘[They’ll be] even worse for the economy than the current lot’. He then praised Italy premier Giorgia Meloni as an example for Le Pen to learn from. ‘She’s brought her party [Brothers of Italy] into the 21^st century… she’s been a very good thing and she’s made her party electable’.