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Farage treads a fine line after his friend's tirade
The Observer
|February 23, 2025
Reform leader plays balancing act so as not to upset his supporters or the US president
Finding a way to keep two groups with opposing interests happy is the sort of tediously mainstream manoeuvre that Nigel Farage has managed to avoid in his political career so far.
But Reform UK's leader and, until last week, majority shareholder had to deal with this unfamiliar dilemma on his platform of choice, GB News, after Donald Trump's outburst about Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week.
Most of the British public think that, in the cold-eyed dictator stakes, the Ukrainian president is probably more Larry the Cat than Vladimir Putin, and about 80% of voters who back the three other mainstream parties believe the UK should at least maintain its support for Zelenskyy.
Yet less than half of Reform UK voters agree, and one in 10 of Farage's strongest supporters want Russia to win. Appealing to the silent majority and the far right is no easy task.
This story is from the February 23, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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