Nige must be the unluckiest politician alive. The man who has only ever wanted the best for everybody \u2013 deporting immigrants is clearly in their own best interests, even if it involves death or torture \u2013 keeps getting mired in scandal. There\u2019s the money. Of course there is. Plenty of it from \u2013 how shall we put this? \u2013 unorthodox sources. But there\u2019s also the racism. Why is it that so many who are close to Farage and his organisation turn out to be bigots? How can his message of love and peace to all men be so tainted? It\u2019s happened so often now that you could forgive Nige for being a little grumpy.<\/p>\n
Last week one of his closest friends was at it again. Raheem Kassam, touted as Reform\u2019s next chief of staff, called Kemi Badenoch a \u201cNigerian scammer\u201d. You and I know exactly what he meant. The leader of the opposition was like a West African phonejacker who rang you up and tried to scam your bank accounts. It was a fairly obvious racist slur. One designed to denigrate.<\/p>\n
Nige chats to his \u2018not friend\u2019 Raheem Kassam at a New York Gala in 2024. Photograph: Laura Brett\/Zuma Press Wire\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Only it wasn\u2019t quite so obviously racist to Reform MPs themselves. Robert Jenrick called it a bit of forensic journalism. At least that\u2019s what he implied by describing Kassam as a journalist. Danny Kruger was even more confused. There again, he often is. He\u2019s meant to be the intellectual and moral compass of Reform, but just appears dim-witted and spinning helplessly in space. He thought \u201cNigerian scammer\u201d couldn\u2019t be racist because he couldn\u2019t conceive of any of Nigel\u2019s friends being racist. Try a little harder, Danny.<\/p>\n
It was third time unlucky \u2013 that word again \u2013 as Nige took on his first proper morning media round in months. It didn\u2019t end well for him. Car-crash TV. On BBC Breakfast, the presenter Sally Nugent quickly cut to the chase and it soon became clear that Nige doesn\u2019t take it well when an intelligent woman asks him tricky questions. He likes to think of himself very much as a man\u2019s man. Somehow being interviewed by a woman is a sign of disrespect. Or maybe he\u2019s still tetchy about having given a press conference to a near-empty hall the day before.<\/p>\n
First Nige tried to claim Kassam had not been a former chief of staff \u2013 he had in one of Farage\u2019s previous lives \u2013 and was on the point of saying he wasn\u2019t even a friend. But then he had a brainwave. \u201cHe\u2019s Indian,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s of Indian heritage.\u201d As if that somehow precluded all Indians \u2013 all black and brown people, for that matter \u2013 from being racist. A suggestion, dare one say it, that is racist in itself. Nige clearly believes in a hierarchy of racism. If he believes in racism at all. Maybe we\u2019re just all stuck in a doom loop of cultural relativism. We just need to chill out a bit.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to First Edition<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Next Farage tried to play the word dissociation game. Just because Kassam had used the words \u201cNigerian scammer\u201d in conjunction with one another, it didn\u2019t necessarily mean the words were in any way connected to form a single image. All he had done was to state two truths. Kemi was of Nigerian descent, though for the purposes of this conversation he was prepared to concede that she might also be part British. And she was a scammer, because she had said things that were demonstrably untrue. Much the same could be said of Nige, mind. Maybe in his own mind he also longs to be outed as a scammer.<\/p>\n Back in the BBC studio, Nugent wasn\u2019t having any of this and kept at him. Did he think it was racist? \u201cNo, I don\u2019t,\u201d said Nige. Perhaps a bit over the top, but definitely not intentionally racist. Farage had spoken, Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s racism. Something could be racist and not racist at the same time. In any case, he couldn\u2019t be held responsible for any of the social media posts his friends and supporters made. It was his curse that so many in Reform expressed themselves in racist language. He had no idea why he had become the last refuge for so many bigots.<\/p>\n Things took on a more surreal turn later that morning when Kassam emailed a Guardian journalist to give an update on the situation. In it, he said that Nige had given him a ticking off for a tweet that was neither \u201cclever nor funny\u201d. Just a shame Farage couldn\u2019t have used his position as the leader of Reform to make that same point on the BBC hours earlier. Kassam went on to say that, in hindsight, his tweet could have been better phrased and timed. He also claimed Kemi was a con artist for turning the Tories into a version of the Lib Dems. That will come as news to both the Tories and the Lib Dems. The Tories have been shadowing Reform to the right for the last two years.<\/p>\n The real sorry-not-sorry moment came when Kassam suggested he had spent too much time in the US recently. Over there, out-and-out racism was an acceptable rite of political discourse. People could say what they want. The trouble is that we Brits had lost our sense of humour. It was now a thought crime even to make a racist joke. Time we all lightened up. What was needed was more politicians who called Kemi a \u201cNigerian scammer\u201d not fewer.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t quite the end of it. Because Kassam\u2019s new found contrition may not be all it seems. On Tuesday morning he was again posting about \u201cKemi Scammenoch\u201d on X. A post that has been subsequently deleted. As has his pinned \u201cNigerian scammer\u201d tweet. If this is remorse, it\u2019s still in its early days. Maybe one should treat Kassam and Farage as one and the same. When they show you what they are, believe them.<\/p>\n On Tuesday 1 December, join John Crace and Pippa Crerar as they skewer the biggest stories from Westminster and beyond, as part of the Guardian\u2019s year in review event<\/a>. Joined by fellow Guardian writers, expect candid conversations, witty remarks and surprises as they look back on the year-defining stories of 2026. Book tickets here<\/a> or at theguardian.live<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to the future. 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