Nigel’s revenge

Something’s been missing from Westminster these past few days. Normally, in an election week, there is a buzz about the place. Politicians feast off their encounters with the voters, coming back from the campaign trail with new theories about what the public really want. But this time, few MPs from any party seem keen to talk about this week’s local elections — or the impact they are likely to have on Brexit, Theresa May’s tenure in No. 10 and the future of British politics in general. This is because they know that the European elections, which are just three weeks away, will have a huge influence on all of these questions.

The European elections are the vote that was never meant to happen. When the country woke up on 24 June 2016 to the news that the United Kingdom had voted to leave the EU, few would have imagined that almost three years later they would have been voting to send another cohort of MEPs to the European parliament for a term that ends in 2024. That these elections are taking place at all is a testament to the failure of the governing class to deliver on the referendum result.

For once, Nigel Farage does not need to exaggerate the failure of the governing elite — which is why his Brexit party went from launching to leading in the polls in less than a week. It remains top of the European parliament polls with an ever-strengthening lead. MPs look on, stunned, not sure what to make of this, where it will stop or what it will mean. No one knows whether the voters defecting to the Brexit party will ever come back.

Rumours are circulating that Farage’s aim is to destroy the leader he fears most: Boris Johnson. This is more doable than it might sound.