Nigel Farage has left the jungle. What now?

Nigel Farage has left the jungle. For a brief moment it looked as if the original Brexiteer might pull off yet another electoral upset. Instead, he finished a creditable third on I’m a Celebrity… one of the biggest popularity contests on TV.

Throughout the series, left-leaning commentators have accused ITV of deliberately ‘fun-washing’ (a depressingly 2023 phrase) Farage’s reputation. The comedian Stewart Lee wrote an especially humourless piece for the Guardian, which included a passage implying that because of Farage’s appearance in the jungle, Ant and Dec were somehow sympathisers of the Norwegian white supremacist Anders Breivik (yes, really). I have little doubt that alongside an army of GB News viewers and hardcore Brexit supporters, there will also have been those who voted for Farage simply to enjoy the crescendo of hysteria from left-wing social media every time he survived a vote-off.

And yet, it would be a mistake to assume Farage’s podium finish is a sign that viewers have fallen in love with either his personality or politics. For those of us who have followed the series closely, he has made for surprisingly lacklustre television. As Gareth Roberts correctly observed on these pages a few weeks ago, Farage has revealed himself to be a really rather boring man. He has largely (and perhaps deliberately) avoided any blazing political rows with his campmates, and shown little of the roguish bonhomie one associates with him. Aside from a brief glimmer of jocularity, when he performed Right Said Fred’s ‘I’m Too Sexy’ during a karaoke session in the Jungle Arms, he has been a peripheral figure, reduced to wandering around camp muttering about the litter. 

This time last year, on the same programme, the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock surprised the nation by also finishing third. Twelve months on, has it led to a fundamental reappraisal of Hancock the man, or the politician? Absolutely not. If anything, it has only added to the existing narrative that he’s a somewhat pitiful figure desperately craving validation and attention. Farage’s motivations are just as transparent. Early in the series, he complained to fellow campmate Grace Dent, naively believing he was off camera, that he was disappointed not to be doing that day’s bushtucker trial, because it accounts for ‘25 per cent of the airtime’. It’s a comment Ant and Dec have enjoyed poking fun at ever since. On another occasion he was asked if he wanted to be Tory leader or prime minister one day. He gleefully responded ‘never say never’. This is not a man who is disguising his true intentions. 

What happens next for Farage? Given the current state of the Conservative party, it is entirely conceivable that Farage may end up as its leader within a few years, whatever the consequences will be. Or perhaps he will re-engage with Reform UK, previously known as the Brexit party, whose polling numbers have risen in recent months. Either way, this won’t be the last we hear of Nigel Farage. Throughout his time in the jungle, he has given the impression of an opinionated man choosing to hold back, desperate to avoid causing too many rows with his campmates or alienating ITV viewers. Now he’s left the confines of the Australian rainforest, he won’t have any such qualms. Nigel Farage is out of the jungle. His third act starts now.