Keeping up with Farage

‘Labour are in so much trouble here you can’t even believe it,’ says Nigel Farage as we sit in a parked blue bus in Dudley in the pouring rain. Outside, a group of campaigners in anoraks wave Brexit party banners and sing ‘Bye bye EU’ to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. A mix of locals and supporters from out of town have assembled to hear Farage. A Japanese camera crew rush to film the circus around him. Reporters from New York are following the pack. Keeping up with Farage is exhausting.

When Farage was last in Dudley, the town went on to vote overwhelmingly to Leave, by 67 per cent. Back then, he tells those assembled, the sun was shining. The change in weather, he says, reflects the change in our politics. The story he now has to tell is as much of humiliation as betrayal. Brexit was meant to be a moment of hope, but instead has become a national embarrassment, he says, and it’s time to do something about it. The crowd — made up of a mix of traditional Labour and Tory voters — goes wild as he calls for a no-deal Brexit and asks: ‘Are we going to be a great independent self-governing nation?’ Yes, comes the loud reply.

Farage has been making speeches like this for the best part of two decades, yet his latest project has a reach far beyond what Ukip ever had. Before the Brexit party’s launch last month, he placed a £1,000 bet that it would finish in first place in the European elections. Since then it has defied all expectations — surging in the polls, packing out venues across the country and going viral on social media. It is now polling first in Wales and ahead of Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives in Scotland.