Brexit champion Nigel Farage on Friday morning finally became a U.K. MP at the eighth attempt and his insurgent right-wing Reform Party is on the rise.
Farage is riding the wave of right-wing populist support which is growing across Europe and beyond, a narrative that — on the surface — runs counter to the Labour Party’s Farage’s election will send shockwaves through a political scene where he is largely seen as a pariah by the MPs of other parties.Reform is the latest iteration of Farage’s now-defunct Brexit Party, which failed to win any seats in the 2019 General Election, a story which couldn’t be more different today.
Right-wing populist support has swung to the insurgent party away from the Conservatives, adding salt to the wound of its massive loss to Labour. But it’s also come from people attracted by Farage’s anti-establishment rhetoric. Launching his bid for MP, he described his run as a “revolt,” saying his emergence represented, “a turning of our backs on the political status quo. It doesn’t work. Nothing in this country works any more.