The Wheels Are Falling off the Nigel Farage Project

The Reform leader's increasingly rattled public appearances betray a growing sense that the opportunity of a lifetime could be about to slip from his fingers

Nigel Farage should be feeling happy right now.

Reform have been consistently ahead in the polls for the past eight months, while the Government he is seeking to overturn are by some measures the most unpopular of the modern era.

Yet anyone watching Farage’s public appearances over the past week will have observed a man who is becoming increasingly uncomfortable in his own skin.

At a press conference on Thursday the Reform leader spent most of his time on stage ranting about the BBC, while refusing to answer straightforward questions about allegations from his former schoolmates that he was a racist and anti-semitic bully.

Faced with a barrage of inquiries about these stories, Farage at one point resorted to repeatedly shouting “Bernard Manning” at a reporter from ITV. I suppose it was meant to look commanding. In reality it looked unhinged.

There are good reasons for his bad temper.

While still ahead in the polls, there has been a definite slip in Reform’s ratings over recent weeks, following the racism stories and the conviction of his good friend and colleague Nathan Gill for taking pro-Russian bribes.

And with Reform’s average poll support now only marginally above what it was when they overtook Labour back in April, some of Farage’s media supporters are also starting to have second thoughts.

Here’s why the wheels could be about to fall off of the Farage project.