1. Nigel Paul Farage is a British politician and broadcaster who has been Member of Parliament for Clacton and Leader of Reform UK since 2024, having previously been its leader from 2019 to 2021.
153 Facts About Nigel Farage
1. 2.
Nigel Farage was the leader of the UK Independence Party from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016.
3.
Nigel Farage was elected UKIP's leader in 2006 and led the party at the 2009 European Parliament election, when it won the second-most votes in the UK.
4.
Nigel Farage stood unsuccessfully in Buckingham at the 2010 general election before he returned as UKIP's leader that same year.
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At the 2015 general election Nigel Farage was an unsuccessful candidate in South Thanet.
6.
In 2018 he co-founded the Brexit Party, which drew support from those frustrated by the delayed implementation of Brexit by Theresa May's government, and won the most votes at the 2019 European Parliament election, becoming the largest single party in the parliament; May announced her resignation days later, and was succeeded by Boris Johnson, whose government delivered Brexit in 2020; Nigel Farage has criticised the delivery of Brexit on several occasions.
7.
At the 2024 general election Nigel Farage again became Reform UK's leader, and won in Clacton.
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Nigel Farage is known for his distinctive character and style, including his flamboyant personality, fashion, and social media presence, as well as his form of British right-wing populism.
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Nigel Farage was ranked second in The Daily Telegraph "Top 100 most influential right-wingers poll" in 2013, behind Cameron, and was named "Briton of the Year" by The Times in 2014.
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Nigel Farage was ranked first on the New Statesman Right Power List in 2023, described as "the most influential person on the British right".
11.
Nigel Paul Farage was born in Farnborough, Kent, England, the son of Barbara and Guy Justus Oscar Farage.
12.
Nigel Farage's father was a stockbroker who worked in the City of London.
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Nigel Farage's father gave up alcohol two years later, in 1971, and entered the antiques trade, having lost his Stock Exchange position; the next year, endorsed by friends, he returned to the trading floor at the new Stock Exchange Tower on Threadneedle Street.
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Nigel Farage's grandfather, Harry Nigel Farage, was a private who fought and was wounded in the First World War.
15.
From 1975 to 1982, Nigel Farage was educated at Dulwich College, a fee-paying private school in south London.
16.
Nigel Farage was active in the Conservative Party from his school days, having seen a visit to his school by Keith Joseph.
17.
Emms rejected those concerns, as did the college's deputy headmaster, Terry Walsh, who said later that Nigel Farage "was well-known for provoking people, especially left-wing English teachers who had no sense of humour".
18.
Nigel Farage joined Refco in 1994, and Natixis Metals in 2003.
19.
Nigel Farage had joined the Conservative Party in 1978, but voted for the Green Party in 1989 because of what he then saw as its "sensible" and Eurosceptic policies.
20.
Nigel Farage left the Conservatives in 1992 in protest at Prime Minister John Major's government's signing of the Treaty on European Union at Maastricht.
21.
In 1994, Nigel Farage asked Enoch Powell to endorse UKIP; Powell declined.
22.
Nigel Farage was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 and re-elected in 2004,2009 and 2014.
23.
Nigel Farage was the leader of the 24-member UKIP contingent in the European Parliament, and co-leader of the multinational Eurosceptic group, Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy.
24.
Nigel Farage was ranked the fifth-most influential MEP by Politico in 2016, who described him as "one of the two most effective speakers in the chamber".
25.
Nigel Farage said that French President Jacques Chirac had granted Barrot amnesty; initial BBC reports said that, under French law, it was perhaps illegal to mention that conviction.
26.
In early 2005 Nigel Farage requested that the European Commission disclose where the individual Commissioners had spent their holidays.
27.
Nigel Farage persuaded around 75 MEPs from across the political divide to back a motion of no confidence in Barroso, which would be sufficient to compel Barroso to appear before the European Parliament to be questioned on the issue.
28.
Nigel Farage was one of the main drivers behind the censure motion.
29.
Nigel Farage pledged to bring discipline to the party and to maximise UKIP's representation in local, parliamentary and other elections.
30.
At 10pm on 19 October 2006, Nigel Farage took part in a three-hour live interview and phone-in with James Whale on the national radio station Talksport.
31.
Nigel Farage said that Whale "not only has guts, but an understanding of what real people think".
32.
On 4 September 2009 Nigel Farage resigned as UKIP's leader to focus on his campaign to become Member of Parliament for Buckingham at Westminster in the 2010 general election.
33.
Nigel Farage later told The Times journalist Camilla Long that UKIP internal fights took up far too much time.
34.
Nigel Farage stood against sitting Buckingham MP, John Bercow, the newly elected Speaker of the House of Commons, despite the convention that the Speaker, as a political neutral, is not normally challenged in his or her bid for re-election by any of the major parties.
35.
Nigel Farage later said he "miscalculated" the popularity of Bercow in the constituency.
36.
On 6 May 2010, the morning of the election, Nigel Farage was travelling in a two-seater PZL-104 Wilga aircraft with a pro-UKIP banner attached, when the plane crashed.
37.
Nigel Farage was charged with threatening to kill an AAIB official involved in the investigation into the accident.
38.
Nigel Farage stood again for the UKIP leadership in 2010 after his successor Lord Pearson had stood down, and on 5 November 2010 it was announced he had won the leadership contest.
39.
Nigel Farage said that UKIP aspired to come top of the European elections, but Neil suggested UKIP were still seen as "unprofessional, amateur and even unacceptable".
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Nigel Farage was voted politician of the year by the online service MSN.
41.
In May 2013 Nigel Farage led UKIP to its best performance in a UK election.
42.
Nigel Farage was mobbed by well-wishers as he made his way to his favourite pub, the Marquis of Granby, for a celebratory drink.
43.
Nigel Farage called the victory "a real sea change in British politics".
44.
In May 2013 Nigel Farage was interrupted by protesters during a press conference in the Canon's Gait pub on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.
45.
Nigel Farage made attempts to leave by taxi but was prevented from doing so, and was eventually taken away in an armoured police van while protesters continued to shout.
46.
Nigel Farage was trying to raise the profile of UKIP in Scotland ahead of the Aberdeen Donside by-election; the party at that point had no representation in the country, and took 0.91 per cent of the vote in the previous election though it won its first Scottish MEP the following year.
47.
Nigel Farage has criticised the political discourse surrounding tax avoidance as a "race to the bottom".
48.
In October 2014, Nigel Farage said that people who are HIV-positive and those with tuberculosis shouldn't be let into the UK and that "I do not think people with life-threatening diseases should be treated by our National Health Service".
49.
In October 2013 Nigel Farage announced on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show that he would stand for election as an MP at the 2015 general election, most likely contesting either Folkestone and Hythe or South Thanet; meanwhile he stated that his duty and preference was to focus on his current role as an MEP.
50.
In October 2014 Nigel Farage was invited to take part in prospective Leaders' debates on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky ahead of the 2015 general election.
51.
In March 2015 Nigel Farage declared in his book The Purple Revolution that he would step down as UKIP leader should he not be elected as an MP; he stated his belief that it would not be "credible" for him to lead UKIP without sitting in parliament at Westminster.
52.
On 22 March 2015 Nigel Farage was targeted by anti-UKIP activists who chased him and his family from a pub lunch in Downe, Greater London.
53.
Nigel Farage's daughters ran away to hide and were later found to be safe.
54.
Nigel Farage, when asked what he thought about the incident, called the protesters "scum".
55.
Nigel Farage subsequently announced his resignation as the leader of UKIP, citing that he is a "man of his word" since he promised to resign if he did not win his seat, although he kept open the possibility of re-entering the ensuing leadership contest.
56.
On 11 May 2015 it was announced that Nigel Farage would continue to serve as the party's leader, with the BBC reporting: "Party chairman Steve Crowther said the national executive committee believed the election campaign had been a 'great success' and members had 'unanimously' rejected Mr Nigel Farage's letter of resignation".
57.
O'Flynn accused Nigel Farage of paying too much attention to advisors that "would like to take UKIP in the direction of some hard-right, ultra-aggressive American Tea Party-type movement", singling out the NHS and gun control liberalisation as particular issues.
58.
Nigel Farage faced a number of calls from senior figures within the party to stand down.
59.
Nigel Farage had said he was the victim of "trade union-funded activists" who were inciting vandalism.
60.
Nigel Farage was a key figurehead in the Brexit campaign of 2016, which, with 52 per cent of the vote, won.
61.
Nigel Farage initially supported Vote Leave and Leave.
62.
On 28 June 2016, Nigel Farage made a speech in the European Parliament in which he stated that a hypothetical failure for the EU to forge a trade deal with an exiting UK would "be far worse for you than it would be for us", to heckling and laughing by Parliament members.
63.
Nigel Farage said of his fellow MEPs that "virtually none" of them had ever done "a proper job" in their lives.
64.
From 18 to 21 July 2016, Nigel Farage attended the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
65.
Nigel Farage stated that "politicians had lied all the way through" and that the Referendum Act clearly said that the result was advisory.
66.
Nigel Farage talked of a peaceful protest and warned of unprecedented political anger if Parliament blocked Brexit.
67.
Miller said that parliamentary democracy required parliament to debate issues and that Nigel Farage had spent the whole Brexit campaign arguing for parliamentary sovereignty.
68.
Nigel Farage stated in November 2016 that she would not take legal action against those who had threatened her.
69.
On 7 November 2016, Nigel Farage announced he would lead a 100,000 strong march to the Supreme Court, timed for when it started hearing the Government appeal.
70.
The next day, Paul Nuttall became the new UKIP party leader after Nigel Farage decided to step aside to strengthen his relationship with US President-elect Donald Trump.
71.
In 2017 Nigel Farage called for the departure of UKIP's only MP, Douglas Carswell.
72.
On 20 April 2017 Nigel Farage announced that he would not contest the 2017 general election.
73.
Nigel Farage said that he believed he could further advance his version of Brexit as a leader of a group in the European Parliament.
74.
On 4 December 2018 Nigel Farage announced "with a heavy heart" on his live LBC radio show that effective immediately he had resigned his membership of UKIP, after 25 years as a member of the party.
75.
In explanation, Nigel Farage mentioned UKIP leader Gerard Batten's appointment the previous month of far-right activist Tommy Robinson as an adviser and the National Executive of UKIP's voting in a no-confidence vote to keep Batten as leader of the party.
76.
On 8 February 2019, the Financial Times quoted Nigel Farage as saying the new party was a "live vehicle" that could be "mobilised" if Brexit is delayed.
77.
The assailant, who was arrested at the scene, accused Nigel Farage of "spouting bile and racism".
78.
In June 2019, Trump suggested that Nigel Farage should be involved in the UK government's Brexit negotiations, because he had "a lot to offer".
79.
Nigel Farage later announced that he would not be standing as a candidate.
80.
On 8 September 2019, Nigel Farage said that the Brexit Party should be given "a free run" at targeting traditional Labour voters in the North of England, Midlands and Wales by the Conservative Party as part of an electoral pact.
81.
Nigel Farage said that his party and the Conservatives "together would be unstoppable".
82.
In November 2020, Nigel Farage endorsed October's Great Barrington Declaration, which advocates focused protection of those most vulnerable to COVID-19 with the majority of the population allowed to resume normal life.
83.
Nigel Farage described lockdowns as "cruel and unnecessary", said he thought that "the cure is worse than the disease", and announced that the Brexit Party, which was being rebranded as Reform UK, would campaign against further lockdowns.
84.
In 2020, Nigel Farage established a financial newsletter, Fortune and Freedom, which describes itself as "unregulated product published by Southbank Investment Research Limited".
85.
On 28 March 2021, Dutch Green Business announced Nigel Farage had been appointed to the firm's advisory board.
86.
In July 2021, Nigel Farage criticised the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, accusing them of being a "taxi service" for illegal immigrants.
87.
In November 2021 Nigel Farage published an op-ed in The Daily Telegraph contemplating a return to frontline politics, due to the English Channel migrant crossings and what he perceived as the Prime Minister's indifference to the issue.
88.
In 2021, Nigel Farage made videos on the Cameo platform and fell victim to several pranks intended to make him refer to various Irish republican slogans, as well as internet memes such as Among Us and Big Chungus.
89.
Nigel Farage launched the Vote Power Not Poverty campaign to secure a referendum on Johnson's government's pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
90.
In September 2022, Nigel Farage introduced a range of three gins made in Cornwall.
91.
In May 2023, Nigel Farage told BBC Newsnight that Brexit had failed due to the policies of successive Conservative governments, saying that their policies meant that the UK did not benefit economically from leaving the bloc.
92.
In September 2023, Nigel Farage was ranked first on the New Statesman's Right Power List, describing him as "the most influential person on the British right".
93.
In February 2024, Nigel Farage revealed that he was "open-minded" about joining the Conservative Party after the general election, more than 30 years after he left the party.
94.
In November 2024, Nigel Farage was not invited to speak at a farmers' protest outside Downing Street, with organisers citing concerns that his involvement could politicise the event, particularly in light of Brexit's impact on agriculture.
95.
Nigel Farage voiced support on social media, but many farmers opposed his presence, believing it would detract from their cause.
96.
On 6 March 2021, Nigel Farage announced in an interview with The Telegraph that he was retiring from politics and resigning as leader of Reform UK.
97.
Nigel Farage became the party's honorary president and was replaced as the party's leader by Richard Tice.
98.
At a news conference on 3 June 2024, Nigel Farage announced both his intention to become leader of Reform UK and his candidature for the party in the Clacton constituency.
99.
Nigel Farage previously said he would not stand in the election, but changed his mind after people had asked him to run.
100.
On his first day of campaigning in Clacton-on-Sea, Nigel Farage had a banana milkshake thrown over him by a member of the crowd.
101.
Nigel Farage appeared to make a joke about the incident later in the day, when he appeared in front of the media in the village of Jaywick with a tray of milkshakes.
102.
Nigel Farage said that he would not be cowed by the incident.
103.
Nigel Farage chose to replace Anthony 'Tony' Mack as the Reform UK candidate for Clacton.
104.
Nigel Farage declared his ambition for Reform UK to replace the Conservatives as the biggest right-wing party in Parliament.
105.
Nigel Farage later accused Channel 4 of a "set-up", stating that one of the canvassers, Andrew Parker, had been an actor.
106.
Nigel Farage stated that Parker had been "acting from the moment he came into the office", and cited video of Parker performing "rough-speaking" from his acting website.
107.
Amid riots in July and August 2024 following a mass stabbing in Southport, Nigel Farage condemned the disorder, stating: "The levels of intimidation and threat to life have no place in a functioning democracy".
108.
Nigel Farage was criticised by the former head of UK counter-terrorism, Neil Basu, for questioning whether the truth was being withheld from the public, with Basu accusing Nigel Farage of inciting violence and creating conspiracy theories.
109.
In September 2024, Nigel Farage was in the process of purchasing a property in Clacton.
110.
Nigel Farage travelled to attend the Republican National Convention in July 2024.
111.
Nigel Farage said that talk of a $100m donation to his party was "pure speculation", stating: "I've heard nothing of the kind".
112.
That month Nigel Farage travelled to Florida, US, to meet Musk, a trip partly financed by his friend George Cottrell, who had served a prison sentence for fraud in 2017.
113.
On 5 January 2025, Musk called for Nigel Farage to be replaced as leader of Reform UK.
114.
Nigel Farage suggested that this was due to a disagreement over Musk's support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
115.
In March 2025, In an interview with the Daily Mail, fellow Reform MP Rupert Lowe criticised the governance of Reform UK as "a protest party lead by the Messiah", suggesting he might leave the party if things did not change, and saying it was too early to tell if Nigel Farage would make a good prime minister.
116.
Nigel Farage disputed Lowe's criticism of himself and Reform UK, describing his personal following as a good thing, and went on to suggest Lowe's remarks were driven by a desire to be Prime Minister himself.
117.
On 28 October 2020, Nigel Farage spoke at a Trump rally in Arizona, where Nigel Farage praised Trump, calling him the "most resilient and brave person" he had ever met.
118.
Nigel Farage again supported Trump in the 2024 US presidential election.
119.
On 31 May 2024, after Trump was unanimously found guilty by a jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records to commit election fraud, Nigel Farage said in an interview with Sky News that he supports Trump "more than ever".
120.
Nigel Farage has since provided political analysis for both the main Fox News channel and its sister channel Fox Business Network.
121.
From January 2017 to June 2020 Farage hosted The Nigel Farage Show on the UK talk radio station LBC.
122.
Nigel Farage said on his show that Channel 4 journalist Jon Snow "should be attacked" for his "condescending bias" during coverage of a pro-Brexit protest in March 2019.
123.
On 31 October 2019, the day the UK was set to leave the European Union before the approval of a delay, Nigel Farage interviewed US President Donald Trump on his LBC show.
124.
New episodes of the podcast were released every Friday, but the podcast was cancelled after the American rock music band Rage Against the Machine sent a cease and desist letter to Nigel Farage, demanding that Nigel Farage change the name of the podcast, which he was unwilling to do, prompting LBC to reluctantly trigger its cancellation.
125.
On 11 June 2020, LBC announced that Nigel Farage would be leaving the station "with immediate effect", noting that his contract had been up for renewal.
126.
On 20 June 2021 Nigel Farage joined the British news channel GB News to host the Sunday morning political discussion programme The Political Correction.
127.
Nigel Farage later said he did not get a fixed monthly fee from GB News, but was paid varying amounts as a contractor.
128.
In November 2023, it was announced that Nigel Farage would appear on the twenty-third series of the UK reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity.
129.
Nigel Farage finished in third place, behind Tony Bellew in second, and Sam Thompson in first.
130.
Nigel Farage has spoken of how they have been teased because of their relation to him.
131.
Nigel Farage has made reference to his German wife in response to criticisms that he is "anti-Europe", while he himself says he is merely anti-EU.
132.
Nigel Farage has employed his wife Kirsten as his parliamentary secretary and in April 2014 he said that "nobody else could do that job".
133.
In February 2017, his wife told the Press Association that they were living "separate lives" and that Nigel Farage had "moved out of the family home a while ago".
134.
In 2023, it was revealed that Nigel Farage had been in a relationship with the French politician Laure Ferrari for several years.
135.
On 25 November 1985, Nigel Farage was hit by a car after a night out, and suffered injury to his head and left leg, the latter nearly requiring amputation.
136.
Nigel Farage was in casts for 11 months but recovered, and the nurse who treated him became his first wife.
137.
On 26 December 1986, Nigel Farage first felt symptoms of what was later discovered to be testicular cancer.
138.
Nigel Farage had the left testicle removed, and the cancer had not spread to any other organs.
139.
Nigel Farage's memoir Fighting Bull was published in 2010.
140.
Nigel Farage is a keen cricket fan and has appeared on Test Match Special.
141.
Nigel Farage appeared in an advertisement for the bookmaker Paddy Power ahead of golf's 2014 Ryder Cup.
142.
Nigel Farage is an association football fan, and supports Crystal Palace FC.
143.
Nigel Farage is a smoker and fond of beer, this forming part of his public image.
144.
Nigel Farage is a member of the East India Club, an exclusive private gentlemen's club in St James's Square in London.
145.
In January 2016, Nigel Farage told The Mail on Sunday that he believed his car had been tampered with in October 2015, as he had been forced to stop when his car's wheel nuts came loose.
146.
Nigel Farage reported that he had spoken with the French police but did not wish to pursue the matter any further.
147.
The Times said Nigel Farage's story was untrue, and that Dunkirk prosecutors had no reason to suspect foul play or the police would have started an investigation.
148.
Nigel Farage later said he had made a "terrible, terrible mistake" in speaking to journalists and that a Sunday newspaper had misreported his claims of tampering as an assassination attempt.
149.
In June 2023, Nigel Farage said that his account with the private bank Coutts was to be closed.
150.
Nigel Farage was offered a standard bank account by Coutts's parent group, NatWest, in the closure notice he received.
151.
Nigel Farage said he was then refused personal and business accounts at seven other UK banks.
152.
In October 2023, it was reported that the ICO ruled that Rose twice violated the law, as it upheld two parts of Nigel Farage's complaint concerning the treatment of his personal data, but the ICO later withdrew the comment about Rose, and apologised to her, saying that their ruling related only to NatWest.
153.
In November 2016 Nigel Farage was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his role in the 2016 Brexit referendum at the 33rd Parliamentarian of the Year awards run by political magazine The Spectator.