‘Strong confrontation’ comes at fragile moment for Reform’s relations with rightwing media as coverage turns negative. The exchange, which is said to have included an expletive aimed at Tony Gallagher, was triggered by the Reform UK leader’s outrage that the paper was planning to run a story about his houses, which he said endangered his family.
It is a fragile moment for Reform’s relationship with Britain’s rightwing media, whose coverage of Farage and his byelection gamble has taken a negative turn since questions were raised about his funding and finances. Coverage by the Times and the Sun, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News UK stable, as well as the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, has made for tough reading for Reform in recent days.
The Telegraph has described Farage’s decision to subject himself to a “people versus the establishment” by election in Clacton as a “summer gamble” and “a farce”. Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch appeared in its pages stating the Conservative party “is for serious people, not a retirement home for failed politicians” – a jibe at Reform’s collection of Tory defectors.
The Mail has run an editorial that read: “How quickly times – and political fortunes – can change. It is only weeks since Reform UK’s rise appeared almost unstoppable. But two by election defeats and concerns over leader Nigel Farage’s financial affairs have significantly altered the landscape.”
In recent days, a damning verdict on Farage’s current predicament was delivered by Trevor Kavanagh, the Sun’s veteran political commentator and a figure close to Murdoch. “We are witnessing the sudden death of a political movement which began as the UK Independence party, morphed into the Brexit party, and now Reform,” he wrote. “Or, to simply name names, Nigel Farage.”
A Times spokesperson said: “We stand by our journalism, and do not accept that the published photograph identified the location of any property or presented a security risk.”
One senior editor said Farage had abandoned attempts to build broad support in favour of appealing to his base, resulting in attacks on the press. “It’s straight out of Trump world,” they said. “Demonise the messenger, rally the base, undermine the MSM.”
Should scepticism continue among the other newspapers on the right, it would put a serious dent in Reform’s grander ambitions of power
