Nigel farage

It is not self-evidently ridiculous that Nigel Farage should be the next British ambassador to the United States. The wishes of the president-elect should not automatically be discounted. John F. Kennedy’s wish that his friend David Ormsby-Gore (Lord Harlech) should be ambassador was granted. It is also not true that the post must be filled by a professional, or that the Prime Minister should not appoint a political rival to the post. Churchill gave the job to his main rival, Lord Halifax, from 1940. Certainly Mr Farage is not the conventional idea of a diplomat, but then Mr Trump is not the conventional idea of a president. Although its own

Here we go again. First Steven Woolfe quit Ukip following a row with his MEP colleagues and now it is the turn of Diane James, the former party leader. James has released a statement announcing that she will sit in the European Parliament as an independent — adding by way of explanation that her relationship with the party has become ‘increasingly difficult’. In reply, Nigel Farage has accused her of ‘irrational selfishness’. Of course, none of this is hugely surprising. James lasted in the role of leader for just 18 days — claiming at the time that despite her election she had no support among the party’s executive. What’s more, Steerpike understands

At first it looked like Jeremy Corbyn was going to go on the rights of Chagos Islanders at PMQs, but then he shifted tack to Brexit. Corbyn’s questions were quite tightly honed — using Boris Johnson’s comments in a Czech newspaper interview about Britain probably leaving the customs union to needle May. But Corbyn’s own failings give May a way out each time, she just attacks him for not being up to the job. At the end of their exchanges today, you were left with the sense that a better opposition leader could have caused May real problems today, but Corbyn simply isn’t up to it. May received a rare

Theresa May used her first big speech on foreign policy last night to spell out the need for globalisation to change. She adopted a softer approach than she did in her conference speech, when she went on the warpath against the liberal elite, says James Forsyth. Yet she remained clear: this year’s political upheaval shows something needs to give. It’s hard to fault that thinking, but while many would agree with the Prime Minister, does May have the answers for what this change should look like? No, says the Guardian, which slates Theresa May for having no answers to the key questions left following Donald Trump’s election victory. The paper says the Prime Minister

Nigel Farage is once again a thorn in the Prime Minister’s side. After Downing Street dismissed the interim Ukip leader’s offer to help May forge a relationship with Donald Trump, they were left red-faced over the weekend when Farage became the first British politician to meet the president-elect since his victory. Now the Prime Minister is under pressure to rethink her approach to both Farage and Trump. Yet rather than perform a u-turn, she has issued a fresh rejection of Farage’s offer of help. At today’s lobby briefing, when asked whether May would now consider accepting Farage’s help, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said Trump had told May he looked forward to enjoying the same close relationship that Ronald Reagan and

With Theresa May still hanging on the telephone for Donald Trump, the Prime Minister may soon be turning to Nigel Farage for a helping hand. The interim Ukip leader has forged a friendly relationship with the new President — joining him on the campaign trail. Now Farage has given an interview in which he volunteeers to take on a diplomatic role — helping the UK build ties with the US. What’s more, Farage even says he will suggest to Trump that he should keep his hands off May — and can step in as the ‘responsible adult’ if it looks as though the President might get hands-on with the PM: ‘I

As a general rule, any day the government loses in court is a good day. So yesterday was an especially fine day. A delicious one, too, obviously, in as much as the fist-clenched, foot-stamping, whining of so many Brexiteers was so overblown and ludicrous it toppled into hilarity. People who shouted for months about the urgent need to restore parliamentary sovereignty now reacted in horror to the restoration of parliamentary sovereignty. ‘That’s not what we meant’, they spluttered. We meant governmental supremacy only when it suits us. Well, tough. A certain amount of squealing was only to be expected since, if Nigel Farage has taught us anything, it is that the Brexit-minded

This year’s Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards, sponsored by Benenden, saw Theresa May reunited with her former Cabinet colleague George Osborne — and Boris Johnson declare that Brexit will be a Titanic success. Here are a selection of photos from the event, courtesy of Alan Davidson:  

Steven Woolfe has said Ukip is in a ‘death spiral’ and on the basis of the latest candidate to join the party’s leadership contest, it seems like he might be right. John Rees-Evans announced this morning that he was throwing his hat in the ring to replace Nigel Farage at the top of the party. Rees-Evans is a relative outsider in the race and few know quite what he stands for. But what is known about the Ukip leadership candidate is that he once accused a ‘gay donkey’ of trying to ‘rape’ his horse. And during his leadership pitch on the Daily Politics, he was keen to try and move on from what

Since Nigel Farage’s latest resignation as Ukip leader, it has become clear that he is the only person who can hold the party together. Without him, Ukip has become a seemingly endless brawl between various hostile factions. Still, this leaderless mess has more supporters than the Liberal Democrats. That’s because Ukip, for all its flaws, has given a voice to those ignored in an overly centrist political debate — first Eurosceptic Tories, then working-class Labour voters. With decent leadership, Ukip could still do to the Labour party in the north of England what the SNP has done to it in Scotland. Steven Woolfe might have been able to supply that

Labour’s current turmoil gifts Ukip an open goal. Or at least it should do. But instead of taking the opportunity to snatch disaffected Labour voters away, the party seems at pains to trip itself up. Steven Woolfe ended up in hospital after an ‘altercation’ with a fellow Ukip MEP, while Diane James stepped down as leader after just 18 days. Two weeks on, Nigel Farage is back in the helm and it looks to be business as usual for Ukip. Yet while Farage offers stability and familiarity, his presence suggests Ukip is simply offering more of the same – and doing little to try and broaden its appeal. The prospect