His party may be being eaten alive by the force of Theresa May’s strong and stable Conservatives, but Nigel Farage is still making a splash on the continent. Ukip’s thrice former leader took some time out of his strenuous life as an MEP — where he has the lowest vote attendance record of any active member — to sit down in the European Parliament with Die Zeit, a German newspaper.
Revelling in 2016’s victory, he called himself “the father of Euroscepticism”, and said that “after all the years of lonely fighting, it was a huge moment”.
Safe to say such talk did not go down well with Steffen Seibert, the paper’s eagle-eyed interviewer, who pestered him on whether Russian money was involved in funding the Leave side, and what “journalistic reasons” Farage had for visiting Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in March this year.
One question above all stands out as a barometer of European feeling for Farage. “Have you changed from being a politician to being an entertainer?” he asked. Ouch. “Maybe,” came the sheepish response. Da liegt der Hund begraben.
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