Farage: Corbyn in Disguise?
15/08/25
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HALF FARAGE, HALF CORBYN, IMAGE: THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY
If the general trend of opinion polling continues, Nigel Farage could become prime minister at the next general election, an unthinkable prospect only a few years ago. If this comes to fruition, it would signal the arrival of a populist government in the United Kingdom, which could be incredibly consequential for the future of our system. But this is not what I want to focus on in this piece; instead, I want to look at the similarities I see between Farage and Corbyn – similarities they would both like to pretend don’t exist.
This piece will focus on two main areas – foreign policy and the economy. Both have some very questionable foreign policy positions, including some that are at odds with orthodox Western stances. On the economy, Reform have recently been scrutinised for some of their commitments, and questions on where the funding for them is to be sourced, much like Corbyn was in his 2017 and 2019 manifestos. Towards the end, I will briefly look at their leadership styles and how they too compare.
Starting with foreign policy, the media have reported very little on some of Farage’s questionable stances, stances which I believe play into the hands of our adversaries. Farage, for example, blames the West, and particularly NATO, for the war in Ukraine, claiming the alliance’s expansion to Eastern Europe provoked Russia to annexe Crimea in 2014 and launch a full-scale invasion of the sovereign nation in 2022. This very Trumpian view of blame attribution for the Russo-Ukrainian war and criticism of the NATO alliance highlights how a Farage premiership would be dangerous to our national security, especially at a time of heightened global threats from what Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dubbed the ‘axis of evil’. Furthermore, Farage stated in 2014, the same year as the annexation of Crimea, that Vladimir Putin was the global leader he most admired and suggested that if he lived in Russia, he would be inclined to vote for him, possibly missing the point that the Putin regime suppresses opposition voices. He clarified these comments only last year, stating, “I said I disliked him as a person, but admired him as a political operator”, which is disturbing to hear from a potential future prime minister.
The inability of Farage to correctly identify who our friends and foes are makes him totally unfit for office. Ironically, many of the voters attracted to Farage levelled the same concerns at Jeremy Corbyn for some of his questionable foreign policy stances and previous comments. Corbyn, for example, was in favour of withdrawing from NATO, adding he believed the alliance should be disbanded. In 2014, following the annexation of Crimea, like Farage, Corbyn stated that NATO expansion provoked Russia’s actions – providing some justification for an illegal use of force from an imperialist regime we should be standing up to unequivocally. During his time as leader of the Labour Party, he acknowledged his views on NATO were at odds with the wider public, so he came to a compromise position that the alliance should have a more restricted role, which is a position not too dissimilar to Farage’s current stance.
Corbyn also showed he was unable to correctly identify who our friends and foes are when he described members of proscribed terrorist organisations Hezbollah and Hamas as “friends”, inviting them to speak at an event he hosted in Parliament.
PORTRAIT OF CORBYN, IMAGE: JEREMY CORBYN
Now, onto the economy. It may come as a surprise to make a comparison between Farage and Corbyn, but support for the lifting of the two-child benefit cap and the nationalisation of the UK’s steel industry does show Farage to be drifting leftwards on some socio-economic issues, perhaps as an offering to lifelong Labour voters who have become disillusioned with the Party’s direction over recent years.
Farage and Corbyn have something else in common – unfunded pledges. In Corbyn’s case, it was unfunded spending commitments; in Farage’s case, it's unfunded tax cuts/breaks, both of which can be devastating to our economic prospects and economic credibility.
Tax breaks appear to be Farage’s go-to response to anything he wants to incentivise, but the cumulative costs of these are often dismissed, which I think makes Reform untrustworthy with the economy. Further, Reform’s cost-cutting figures are also criticised by many respected institutions, such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies, for being inflated, due to the inclusion of private sector contributions to some of the figures. Reform’s unfunded economic policies, according to The Economist, could lead to an annual fiscal gap of £100bn. Even if this figure is remotely accurate, it would have devastating economic consequences. The same piece in The Economist describes a potential “fiscal implosion”, potentially exceeding the financial implications of the Liz Truss mini budget, a fiscal event Farage described as the best Conservative budget since 1986. What followed that budget at the height of the Lawson Boom was the economy overheating, culminating in Black Monday, mass unemployment in excess of three million, inflation reaching double digits, and Britain entering a deep recession as the 1990s began.
We can never again allow an ideologically driven economic policy to be introduced that once again jeopardises our economic stability, credibility, and fiscal responsibility. The consequences would be grave, not only because our economy is on a fragile footing, but also because it would suggest, from a global economic perspective, that Britain did not learn its lessons from the Truss debacle. If Reform is elected and their policies run a significant monetary deficit, it would mean the next generation picking up the tab for their failings.
FARAGE AT A 'LIBERTY FOR TRUMP' EVENT IN ARZIONA, IMAGE: GAGE SKIDMORE
Finally, I would like to address their similar leadership styles. They are both charismatic, tireless, and long-standing campaigners, albeit on different causes. Farage’s political career, campaigning against EU membership, began over thirty years ago when around 1 in 5 people wanted Britain to fully withdraw from the European Union. Corbyn, like many on the radical left, is also a very experienced campaigner, given the nature of the way they choose to campaign and politically participate, and politician, having begun serving as MP for Islington North in 1983.
They are both also divisive leaders, with very little time for critics who try to influence party policy. Since last November, Reform have lost two key figures from its ranks – both having been critical of Farage’s leadership style – Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe. Habib chose to leave the Party months after being dismissed as deputy leader, opting to form his own Party, Advance UK, criticising Farage’s apparent softening of policy. Lowe, who the Party suspended in March, described Farage’s leadership style as “messianic” and criticised the lack of coherent and consistent policy, as well as criticising the paucity of spokespeople for the Party. This criticism came in a Daily Mail interview given in the week leading up to his suspension from Reform when he was reported to the police by Party Chairman Zia Yusuf, alleging Lowe had made verbal threats against him on two occasions. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case in May due to insufficient evidence.
Corbyn, similarly, had many critics within the Labour Party, and very few of those were given a seat at the shadow cabinet table. After an unsuccessful attempt to remove him as leader in 2016, the Corbynite grip of the Labour Party firmed, not only through appointees to the shadow cabinet but also at a grassroots level with Momentum. In February 2019, seven moderate Labour MPs, including Chuka Umuna and Luciana Berger, left the Party, criticising its policy direction and Corbyn’s leadership (sound familiar to Habib and Lowe?), even levelling accusations of antisemitism, with Berger describing the Labour Party at that time as “institutionally antisemitic”. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (which had only previously investigated the BNP) would publish a report into antisemitism within the Labour Party in 2020 that found Labour to be unlawfully in breach of three parts of the Equality Act.
Whether they like it or not, Corbyn and Farage have many similar traits and unorthodox views of the world, despite a massively different voter coalition. Both are unfit for office for the reasons I have set out in this piece (among others), and I urge those considering voting Reform to consider these matters, and to think of the criticisms you levelled at Corbyn, because many of these can be applied to Farage too.
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