Much of the commentary on the local elections has focused thus far on the Tories’ southern discontent. But today, Nigel Farage will turn his guns on the north of England, as he seeks to position his party as the real challenger to Labour across swathes of the so-called Red Wall. Key voters in these northern constituencies broke with Keir Starmer’s party over Brexit, elected Boris Johnson in 2019 but then switched back to Labour in protest at the Tories last July.
Given the government’s subsequent woes, Farage clearly now senses an opening. This afternoon’s speech has been heavily trailed, with a column in the Sunday Express and the splash of today’s Sun. ‘Britain is broken’, screams the headline, citing a poll showing that two thirds of voters in the Red Wall think the country is ‘heading in the wrong direction’. Aides talk excitedly of ‘something you have never seen before’ and how ‘we are going after Labour now.’
The setting for Farage’s speech could not be more appropriate: a working men’s club in Durham, whose council was run by Starmer’s party from 1925 until 2021.
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