{"id":674749,"date":"2026-07-05T08:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674749\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T08:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:50:11","slug":"could-farage-quit-questions-swirl-over-reform-uk-leaders-future-nigel-farage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674749\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Farage quit? Questions swirl over Reform UK leader\u2019s future | Nigel Farage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOf course he\u2019s tired. He\u2019s just done two months campaigning every day on the road, it would be weird if he wasn\u2019t. But that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s going to quit,\u201d says one friend of Nigel Farage<\/a> who has spent time with him in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Westminster has been ablaze with rumours that Farage is growing weary in the job of leading Reform UK after the bruising scandal around his decision to accept a \u00a35m gift<\/a> from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. He is now also facing further questions<\/a> about whether his lifestyle has been partly funded by George Cottrell, his close friend and a convicted fraudster.<\/p>\n

As Farage awaits the verdict of the standards watchdog<\/a> over whether he was right not to declare the cash from Harborne, he has flown to the US to rub shoulders with the Maga elite once again, with sources saying he is back in close contact with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

In London, Reform UK\u2019s Millbank HQ is more riven with infighting and jostling for position than usual, amid questions over Farage\u2019s future. There is also anxiety over the party\u2019s recent byelection losses \u2013 and its decision to push further towards the hard right to take on the former Reform MP Rupert Lowe\u2019s Restore Britain.<\/p>\n

Old-time Reformers distrust the former Tories who have joined the party, primarily Robert Jenrick and his team, whom they suspect of plotting to succeed Farage, possibly in the event of a post-election deal with the Tories \u2013 something Jenrick denies.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Zia Yusuf, the party\u2019s combative donor and home affairs spokesperson, has spoken of not being picked to stand in byelections, and clashed with Jenrick<\/a> on social media over the party\u2019s deportation policy.<\/p>\n

When Reform sources briefed the media that there was a push to get rid of Yusuf for shifting further to the right after the Makerfield byelection loss, the party\u2019s policy chief, James Orr, endorsed a message in support of him, likening his critics to \u201csnakes in the grass\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yusuf, Jenrick and Farage at a press conference in February. Photograph: Guy Bell\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

At the root of the tensions is the question of who is the likely successor if Farage is unable to politically survive the scrutiny of his finances and wealth-building outside politics.<\/p>\n

An adverse finding from the watchdog could lead to suspension as an MP for Farage, and possibly a byelection in his Clacton constituency, which he could still fight and win. Labour, the Tories and Restore are all preparing for a contest, while Reform is braced for one. It has hired the veteran journalist Miles Goslett, who helped on a favourable biography of Farage for the Tory donor and pollster Michael Ashcroft, and the party has shaken up its social media operation in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there is no doubt that Farage has reduced his public profile since the Guardian revealed in April<\/a> that he had taken \u00a35m from Harborne before he became an MP. Harborne has also given \u00a315m to Reform.<\/p>\n

Reform insiders say Farage has been largely absent from party HQ \u2013 though Reform says he is at Millbank every day \u2013 and he has been taking a break from his 7pm GB News slot since before the local elections. In the meantime, he has been taking long lunches in favoured Mayfair and Chelsea clubs and restaurants, as well as spending time in his new Surrey property, bought shortly after Harborne\u2019s \u00a35m gift in 2024 \u2013 although he has said<\/a> money for the purchase came from his I\u2019m a Celebrity \u2026 Get Me Out of Here! fee.<\/p>\n

Farage is currently in Washington DC for the US\u2019s 250th anniversary celebrations, and friends say he is in close contact with the Trump administration again, after failing to meet up with the president earlier this year. This is despite polling showing that links to the US president are a major impediment to voters backing Reform.<\/p>\n

Trump and Farage in Arizona in October 2020. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a very different feel to Farage these days from even a few years ago,\u201d said one person who has worked in Millbank HQ. \u201cHe\u2019s on a really tight schedule, and that\u2019s understandable, but that also means even some of his fellow MPs can\u2019t get appointments and end up complaining that their own donors can\u2019t get face time with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being out on the campaign trail in the run-up to the local elections, two Manchester byelections and a police and crime commissioner contest in Norfolk, Farage has shied away from his previously weekly press conferences.<\/p>\n

A broadcast media round on which he was repeatedly grilled about the \u00a35m was regarded internally within Reform as something of a disaster. \u201cHis strategy of lying low is the right one for the moment and he should have stuck to that,\u201d one former adviser said.<\/p>\n

Even when appearing in parliament recently, Farage has cut a semi-detached figure from the other seven Reform MPs. While Richard Tice and others gestured furiously at Keir Starmer in parliament when the prime minister said Reform should be \u201cashamed of themselves\u201d for fanning the flames of racism, Farage remained largely impassive, and this week he left the chamber alone.<\/p>\n

Farage defenders blame the speculation about his future on Tories and the Restore party fanning the flames, with some convinced that the two parties are working in concert to try to bring him down.<\/p>\n

Rupert Lowe, the Restore Britain leader. Photograph: Oli Scarff\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a classic out of the playbook against Trump in trying to weaken him by going after him personally,\u201d said one Reform insider and Farage ally. Another described it as \u201cwishful thinking by his enemies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sources in Reform said they did not \u201crecognise the characterisation\u201d of the party as one that was struggling with divisions or stalling in the polls. \u201cReports of our demise are very much exaggerated and the legacy parties are putting too much hope in their fantasies of Reform\u2019s decline. There will be no deals, no pacts. The Conservative party has failed Britain,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n

Danny Kruger, a Reform MP who defected from the Tories, went public with an attack on Farage\u2019s detractors, saying: \u201cThe hounding of Nigel Farage and his family over their personal finances and living arrangements is a transparent attempt by established power \u2013 in the government and the media \u2013 to disable Reform because of the threat the party poses to their privileges.\u201d He accused them of \u201cplaying the man and not the ball\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite Kruger and others defending Farage, a few of those who are still working in Millbank and some who have recently left the party are questioning whether Farage as leader has been transformational enough to win a general election.<\/p>\n

Reform may have swept the board at the local elections, gaining nearly 1,500 councillors and taking control of 14 councils, but pollsters have begun to talk of a \u201cceiling\u201d in Reform\u2019s support at about 30%, restricted by a perceived lack of professionalism and political flirtations with the language of the hard right.<\/p>\n

Reform UK supporters in Sunderland celebrate the local election results in May. Photograph: Owen Humphreys\/PA<\/p>\n

Rather than spending time worrying about how to defeat an Andy Burnham-led Labour, Farage\u2019s party has instead being tying itself in knots over the threat from Lowe. Farage is known to be frustrated that Lowe and Restore have been outperforming Reform on social media. In part to tackle this, and in part in irritation at the traditional media\u2019s focus on his finances, Farage recently launched his own Substack that attacks \u201canti-white\u201d bias in its first article.<\/p>\n

On the organisational and staffing front, there has been a lot of churn. Alongside high-profile policy hires from media outlets such as the Telegraph, there has been the departure of David Bull as chair after less than a year, to focus on standing to become an MP. Charlton Edwards has also recently exited as a company director and is no longer treasurer. Both men have not commented further on the reasons, but Bull recently caused a stir by saying he thought Farage needed a break from politics.<\/p>\n

There have also been a few Conservative defectors trickling back. Robbie Lammas, a councillor who was a high-profile local government defection from the Conservatives, recently left Farage\u2019s party again, described its central office as a \u201ca strange place\u201d staffed mainly by young and inexperienced workers, where former Tories were eyed with suspicion by new \u201cReformers\u201d and an older breed of veterans from the Ukip days.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarage seems to hold his court in parliament virtually exclusively, though he might turn up for the occasional press conference. Millbank is almost a separate operation, very much dominated by Zia Yusuf,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s full of very young and inexperienced junior staffers in their early 20s. Youth is good but the problem is that there is no experienced hand at the end of each bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ems Barr is another former Conservative who joined Reform before returning to supporting the Tories. \u201cTechnically I\u2019m still a member of Reform,\u201d she said. \u201cBut a big part of what made me go back was that some of the Conservative people who joined Reform were the people I didn\u2019t really want to be in a party with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some donors to the party are unhappy about strategy and what they consider to be the lack of focus on policy \u2013 although Reform barely needs a broad base when it has raked in millions from crypto mega-donors such as Harborne<\/a> and Ben Delo<\/a>. This week the Iranian-born billionaire Sasan Ghandehari pledged to give further millions.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year the party appointed Orr, a Cambridge theologian with hardline anti-abortion and pro-family views, as its head of policy. Since then, its policy output has been slow, apart from a plan to protect women and mothers in the workplace and a focus on deporting migrants who arrive in the UK illegally. Separately, some policies such as the party\u2019s flagship crypto and digital assets bill appear to have disappeared from its website.<\/p>\n

James Orr speaking at an event in the US last December. Photograph: Zuma Press\/Alamy<\/p>\n

One Reform donor, speaking after Makerfield, told the Guardian: \u201cNot only have they failed to win, but they have spectacularly failed \u2026 There are questions about strategy, but there are also other questions. One is about policies. Populists can only win up to a point and after that it can fall apart, as we have seen elsewhere. There needs to be a broader set of policies and ideas which the party can draw on and also project to the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cHe [Farage] needs to knock heads together and stop the competition between his team, but he also has to learn to delegate much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Reform donor said there were \u201cclearly fault lines there for anyone to see\u201d and that problems had started after Jenrick came into the party, \u201ccoming from a background where he was clearly at the centre of a Tory civil war and so that plotting has been part and parcel of who he is, and those who have come with him\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI think Nigel has been happy to delegate stuff, both because he\u2019s older but also because he has other interests. Zia Yusuf has basically been his prime minister, who wields the executive power. Richard Tice is the cement and mortar which fills in the gaps. So that was a triumvirate, but then you had Jenrick coming and that has been a source of disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those fault lines are likely to deepen if big beasts in Reform sense that Farage\u2019s leadership is at stake.<\/p>\n

Ben Habib, the former Reform deputy leader pushed out in late 2024, who is now in a legal dispute with Harborne, believes his ex-leader is \u201cfacing an existential threat and that is in the hands of the parliamentary standards commissioner\u201d and says Reform \u201cdoes seem to be having a real problem with it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he necessarily would win a byelection [in Clacton]. Restore will happily take him on,\u201d Habib said.<\/p>\n

Rob Ford, a Manchester politics academic who co-authored a book on the rise of the radical right, thinks Farage is unlikely to step out of the political fray willingly \u2013 and that, if he does so, it would be a \u201ctotal mess\u201d for the party, with Lowe and Restore Britain probably the main beneficiary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there would be a big, big argument in Reform, which, if Lowe ticked up in the polls, would only intensify,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Ford added: \u201cWhenever Farage is under media criticism and scandal, he starts to sort of play his tiny violin and talk about how much he sacrificed and, yes, he loves it. He loves to be in the circus, and I don\u2019t think \u2013 unless he\u2019s physically prevented from being in the circus \u2013 that he\u2019ll ever stop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOf course he\u2019s tired. He\u2019s just done two months campaigning every day on the road, it would be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-674749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}