Latest news with #UKIP
New European
a day ago
- General
- New European
Has Reform's newest MP already gone off message?
Pochin, elected as MP for Runcorn and Helsby in May's by-election caused by the nocturnal activities of Mike Amesbury, asked her first question of Keir Starmer today – and it took a turn which few, least of all her leader, seemed to anticipate. Has Sarah Pochin, Reform's newest MP, gone off-piste already? It certainly seemed so from a first-ever appearance at Prime Minister's Questions which was unlikely to have been signed off by Nigel Farage's office. 'Given the prime minister's desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he, in the interests of public safety, follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burqa?'. Farage's face, which was staring towards the chamber's ornate ceiling, was not caught by cameras. For, for all his many, many faults, overt Islamophobia is one rabbit hole he has studiously avoided getting sucked down – less, perhaps, for ideological reasons than for seeing how an obsession with it once he stepped down as UKIP leader damaged that party's standing (when, in 2017, the party's general election manifesto included a ban on face coverings, leader Paul Nuttall endured the best part of week fielding questions as to whether it would apply to beekeepers' outfits). Pochin already looked a slightly troublesome choice, being a former councillor with the dubious distinction of having been kicked out of both the Conservative and independent groupings on Cheshire East council since being first elected in 2015. Keir Starmer, for his part, had some fun with Parliament's newest MP, asking whether she would tell her new leader that 'his latest plan to bet £80 billion of unfunded tax cuts with no idea of how he is going to pay for it is Liz Truss all over again – although considering I think she was a Conservative member when Liz Truss was leader, she probably won't'. But might Pochin be a bet Farage is already having gambler's remorse about?
The Herald Scotland
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Nigel Farage jeered during Aberdeen press conference
Protesters outside the venue held signs and banners reading: 'Farage not welcome in Scotland" and "Aberdeen Stand Up to Racism", chanting 'Oh, Nigel is a racist" and "Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here." Police were eventually called, with five uniformed officers blocking the main entrance to the restaurant. READ MORE: While still leader of UKIP, Farage visited Aberdeen in June 2013 — and was forced to cancel a luncheon reception at the city's Marriott over fears of anti-fascist protesters. He would not return to the Granite City for another decade, hosting a live recording of his GB News talk show at a golf club near Pittodrie Stadium in April 2023. While Reform finished fourth in both Aberdeen constituencies at the last general election, the party has performed better in the surrounding Shire, poaching four councillors from the Conservatives in recent months. Earlier on Monday morning, ex-Tory councillor Duncan Massey became the party's first defection on Aberdeen City Council.
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Nigel Farage and his controversial history in Scotland
This ignorance is perhaps unsurprising given the former UKIP leader was once caught out on Irish television with a clip of him declaring "up the RA", apparently oblivious to what it meant. Farage made his sectarianism declaration in the wake of a controversial advert by his party, Reform UK, which took a speech made by Mr Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, out of context and declared he'd "said he will prioritise the Pakistani community". Read More: The video comes from a 2022 speech at an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Pakistan, at which the Labour leader said "Pakistanis need represented in every mainstream political party in Scotland and across the UK". He made no mention of 'prioritising' the Pakistani community. Both Sarwar and the First Minister John Swinney have described the advert as being blatantly racist, with the former describing it as a "dog whistle" questioning his Scottishness. The Reform leader will visit Scotland next week ahead of the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election - one his party stands a good chance of winning. Farage, however, has something of a chequered history with Scotland. The most famous incident involving the 61-year-old north of the border came when he was UKIP leader in 2013. Farage attempted to host a press conference at the Canons' Gait pub on Edinburgh's Royal Mile but was set upon by protestors and eventually had to flee the scene in the back of a police car. Milkshaking hadn't been invented yet and it paled into comparison to an incident three years prior when a plane - Polish, as Farage notes in his autobiography - crashed while attempting to tow a UKIP banner and planted him head first into the ground. Still, the pub pillorying appears to have severely triggered the erstwhile reality TV star. In the immediate aftermath he described the protestors as "fascist scum" and said the incident was "deeply racist" with the crowd "filled with a total and utter hatred of the English". He insisted Alex Salmond should have condemned the incident, with an SNP spokesman saying: "Nothing he says can be treated with a shred of credibility." Farage was still banging on about it a year later ahead of a rally in Glasgow, calling the SNP "the voice of anti-Englishness". Nigel Farage (Image: Newsquest) To recap then, Reform's Sarwar advert was fine but its leader being heckled in a pub is "deeply racist". Farage has also said he would be "concerned" if Romanians moved in next door to him, is "awkward" hearing foreign languages spoken on the train, that Muslims "do not subscribe to British values" and that a UKIP candidate who used the word "ch**ky" was a "rough diamond". One might suggest that comments like those are more of a factor in the protests which greet him both north and south of the border than some kind of virulent anti-English racism. Farage returned to Scotland on the eve of the independence vote - despite the No campaign urging him not to - telling voters they could not hope to achieve a "self-confident, self-governing Scotland" while part of the European Union. Whether this late intervention had any bearing on the no vote is dubious, but the UKIP leader was soon back campaigning for his pet political project. In April 2016 he joined the party's Scottish leader, David Coburn, at a Grassroots Out meeting in Glasgow and was greeted with protestors blasting 'YMCA' by The Village People. The song has since been adopted by Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, and Farage was spotted singing it at a £25k per head champagne party in London in January. Of the musical protest he said: "It's a deliberate attempt by the so-called nationalists to close down genuine, open proper political debate in this country". Journalists attending the event were told they wouldn't be allowed re-entry if they deigned to speak to the protestors. The event saw the launch of UKIP's manifesto for the 2016 Holyrood election, which included a pledge to allow smoking in pubs again and raise the drink driving limit. The party stood in every regional seat and managed 2% of the vote though, of course, Farage got his wish in the Brexit referendum the following month as, on June 23, 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU. His appeal remained more selective in Scotland, though, which voted by 62% to remain. Having voted to leave the European Union, the country and its political parties couldn't quite work out exactly that that meant. David Cameron resigned the morning after the vote and, like a dog actually catching the car it's chasing, the Brexiteer wing of the Conservative Party appeared to have very little plan for what they'd do next. With deadlock in parliament, Farage - who had left UKIP in December 2018 - launched the Brexit Party on January 20, 2019. In May of that year he was back in Scotland, telling a rally in Edinburgh: "You cannot be independent if you're governed from the European Court of Justice. You cannot be independent if you're in the EU's customs union and single market. You cannot be independent if you're governed by Monsieur Barnier and Mr Juncker. "Unless we get Brexit, you cannot really have an intelligent debate about Scotland's future. "Actually, what you ought to do folks, is at this election lend your votes to the Brexit Party. Let's get out of the European Union and then have an honest debate about the future of Scotland." That appeared to represent a slight softening of his position on the constitution, though he noted that another vote "shouldn't happen for a very long time". The speech came during campaigning for the 2019 European Parliament election in which the Brexit Party would take 30% of the vote nationwide but only just under half that in Scotland. That campaign also gave birth to the phenomenon of 'milkshaking' right wing politicians and activists. Nigel Farage covered in milkshake Tommy Robinson was doused in dairy twice in two days while running as an independent candidate, while Farage was hit with a £5.25 Five Guys banana and salted caramel number while on the trail in Newcastle. At his campaign stop in Edinburgh a few days later a nearby McDonald's had a sign in the window advising: "We will not be selling milkshakes or ice creams tonight. This is due to a police request given recent events.' Rival chain Burger King wrote on Twitter: "Dear people of Scotland. We're selling milkshakes all weekend. Have fun. Love BK #justsaying" before clarifying "we'd never endorse violence - or wasting our delicious milkshakes!". The switch from the noble British tradition of egging politicians was probably due to it being a lot easier to explain why you're walking around with a milkshake than a dozen eggs, with the yolky protest dating back to at least 1830s given it was described in George Eliot's Middlemarch. Figures from across the political spectrum including Nick Griffin, George Galloway, Ed Miliband, and Farage himself have been given an egging, though only John Prescott responded with a right hook. It's fair to say, then, that up until now Farage hasn't really understood Scotland and Scotland hasn't understood Farage. That could all change in a few days. The Reform leader is sure to come to North Lanarkshire with a big security team in tow - there are, after all, several ice cream shops in Hamilton.
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Former East of England MEP Patrick O'Flynn dies, aged 59
Tributes have been paid to the journalist and former UKIP Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Patrick O'Flynn, who has died aged 59.O'Flynn, from Cambridge, served as an MEP for the East of England from 2014 until previously worked as the political editor at the Daily Express and Birmingham Post, and had also written for The Prime Minister Boris Johnson said O'Flynn was "a truly original conservative journalist who grasped the causes of much of the current discontent". Nigel Farage, the former UKIP leader and current leader of Reform UK, said: "Paddy was a great journalist, a great thinker, a great patriot and a titan of our joint cause."Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party and MP for North West Essex, said: "I can't quite believe it. My husband and I always enjoyed Patrick's company. "He often messaged me with thoughts on politics. We'd agree on substance then argue over tactics. I teased him about being a secret leftie… but my goodness, he loved this country." O'Flynn was elected as an MEP when UKIP beat Labour and the Conservatives into second and third place in the 2014 European Parliament served as UKIP's economy spokesman until 2015 and also stood as a parliamentary candidate in the former Cambridge constituency in the general election that was UKIP's economics spokesman until 2015 and also held the party's media and sport brief, before quitting in 2018 to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP).In a post on X, the SDP said it was "devastated" to learn of O'Flynn's passing, describing him as "a great journalist, fantastic MEP, true patriot, and most of all a wonderful man". Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Norfolk, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk.
Sky News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Party leaders' shock at death of ex-MEP Patrick O'Flynn
Political journalists and senior politicians have expressed shock at the sudden death of former Daily Express political editor and Member of the European Parliament Patrick O'Flynn, aged 59. He was a prolific commentator for the Express titles and other publications and a loyal supporter of Nigel Farage, serving as a United Kingdom Independence Party MEP from 2014 until 2019. Mr O'Flynn is understood to have died from cancer which advanced rapidly. Friends said he went to the doctor after feeling unwell, was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer and told he only had weeks to live. Leading tributes, Mr Farage said: "So sad to hear of the passing of Patrick O'Flynn. Paddy was a great journalist, a great thinker, a great patriot and a titan of our joint cause. Thank you, Paddy." Boris Johnson said: "Sad to hear of the loss of Patrick O'Flynn - a truly original conservative journalist who grasped the causes of much of the current discontent. His pieces were always punchy and persuasive. He will be missed." And Kemi Badenoch said: "This is dreadful news. I can't quite believe it. My husband and I always enjoyed Patrick's company. He often messaged me with thoughts on politics. Broadcaster and former Sunday Express political editor Julia Hartley-Brewer told Sky News: "It's just a terrible and huge shock. Such a genuinely good bloke." After his election as MEP for the East of England in 2014, Mr O'Flynn was UKIP's spokesman on the economy until 2015, when he stood as the party's candidate in Cambridge in the general election. He quit UKIP in 2018 and joined the Social Democratic Party and stood in the Peterborough parliamentary by-election in 2019 for the SDP, but received only 135 votes.
