Almost half of Tory supporters think that Nigel Farage deserves a peerage, according to a new poll. And while some 53 per cent of the overall public are said to oppose the elevation of Farage to the Lords, if anyone does deserve to become a peer the Brexit party leader should certainly make the shortlist.
Elevation to the Lords is meant to be an exceptional honour for exceptional people. This, of course, isn’t always the case. Over recent decades it has all too often been a reward for reliable placemen who have done a party leader’s bidding with such obsequiousness that not sending them down the corridor to wallow in pomposity becomes unthinkable.
On this former criterion – making an exceptional contribution – there can be no question of Farage’s claim to a lordship. Without the vehicle of a major political party to assist him, he has changed the course of events, forcing the issue of the UK’s membership of a transnational political union to the top of the agenda, despite the constant efforts of the entire establishment to keep it at the margins.
As one of those who featured for a while in his rolling cast of supporting actors, I naturally would not say he has done this “single-handedly”.
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