ANALYSIS
Farage
pinned his fortunes to Trump – now it’s triggered his downfall
Voters
fearing the UK might be Trumpified by Farage can breathe a sigh of relief,
writes political editor David Maddox, who
says Donald Trump’s defeat in the midterms is linked to Reform’s dramatic
decline in the UK
Thursday
05 November 2026 11:57 GMT
If there
was a moment that illustrated how Nigel Farage
has completely lost his political touch, it was when he appeared on his GB News
show on Tuesday evening to proclaim: “I don’t go with the consensus that Trump
is going to get smashed.”
Within
hours, the results were coming in for the US midterms with Donald
Trump’s Republican Party suffering catastrophic – and almost unprecedented
– levels of humiliation
and defeat.
Even
Republican strongholds like Kansas
and Texas fell
to the Democrats as they swept to big majorities in both the House and the
Senate.
While
Americans
turned their backs on “the Donald” and his war with Iran in their millions,
his old mate Mr Farage was apparently still willing to stand up for him.
open
image in gallery
Farage
and Trump in happier times (Instagram)
It was
probably not a huge coincidence that polling in the UK has shown that the
British public has fallen out of love with Reform UK, too.
The YouGov
poll this week showed that two-party politics is back, except that it is
the old contest of the Tories versus Labour. Mr Farage and Reform UK were
in the also-rans column, heading down from the mid-30s a year ago to barely
20 per cent now.
So, why
was Mr Farage so unwilling to say what everyone else could see was coming to
President Trump and his party?
There was
almost certainly an honourable reason for standing by his friend in the face of
overwhelming odds.
But there
was also a sense of desperately holding on to the dying populist message, which
really began dominating Western politics in 2016 with the Brexit referendum and
Trump’s first election.
If
Trump’s 2024 election victory and Reform storming to a massive poll lead in
2025 was peak populism in transatlantic relations, then 2026 seems to have been
the year that voters saw it for the empty shell it is, based solely on
personality cults.
Mr
Farage’s comment shows a man whose desperation to stay relevant and in the
political game has clouded his vision of political reality.
It is
rare for Mr Farage to be so out of touch. His whole career has been based on
being able to judge the political mood and manipulate it.
But he
has pinned much of his fortunes to Trump’s success. The US president, in turn,
has used him as a warm-up act, a key ally and has suggested him for jobs like
Britain’s ambassador to the US.
Now Trump
is probably facing impeachment hearings, with his vengeful opponents
controlling the Capital. He is also facing two years of being mired in legal
proceedings – with his power and influence largely gone.
open
image in gallery
The
Republicans have lost control of the Capitol (Reuters)
Meanwhile,
Mr Farage has lost his own trump card of being the best middle man for the UK
and US at a time when his hardline immigration message is finding less of an
audience and his own party’s scandals – and holes in policy – have left him
badly exposed domestically.
Mr Farage
may well have seen himself as some latter-day Sundance Kid coming out of cover
for one last stand with Trump’s Butch Cassidy. But, politically speaking, they
are – like the two cowboys – being gunned down.
Populism
in the UK and US seems to be on the ebb, with the fates of the two men whose
faces have defined that brand of politics looking increasingly tarnished.
Meanwhile,
Andy
Burnham’s comments about using the midterm results to call on international
leaders to unite on the cost of living show the prime minister and others are
moving on from the current occupant of the White House.
That is
not to say it is completely dead. Both Trump and Farage have made comebacks
before, and there is always the chance that a new populist leader could pick up
the mantle if the mainstream parties falter again.
But, for
now, everyone who feared the UK might be Trumpified after the next election by
a Farage-led government can breathe a sigh of relief – all while viewing the
ruins of one of the most chaotic political projects in modern Western
democratic history.
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