Political pragmatism behind handbrake turn to the left

Something significant has changed with Nigel Farage in 2025 and it is not only that he is a sitting MP after multiple failed attempts.

- DAVID MADDOX

The Reform UK leader has made his name as a nationalist who believed in low taxes, privatising the NHS and demanding an end to immigration. All traditionally right-wing causes.

But after around three decades in British politics, Farage and his party are now openly espousing traditionally left-wing causes. As he declared yesterday: “Reform is now the party of the workers!”

His pledge to reverse the winter fuel cuts – originally a Labour policy from Gordon Brown – and to end the two-child benefit cap are just two examples. But the handbrake turn to the left was actually tested in a much deeper-seated left-wing policy – nationalisation.

When Farage and his team went to Scunthorpe and promised to nationalise British Steel, it hit a political nerve. It was a shocker, though, that the former metals market trader who has berated socialism all his career should become a socialist.