Reform leader’s Derbyshire petrol station stunt grinds to halt when questions on Iran leave him short-tempered
L
et’s try to look on the bright side. At least Nigel Farage wasn’t personally out of pocket. There again, he seldom is. The whole point of being Nige is to never pay for anything if you can help it. Unless you fancy buying a few shares in Kwasi Kwarteng’s “get rich quick” crypto scheme. Ordinary punters would be well advised to think twice before doing the same.
But Nige can’t escape the humiliation. The dawning realisation that he’s not quite as important as he thought he was. That the novelty has worn off and people are not so quick to be taken in. On Thursday, Farage had boasted to anyone who would listen that he was off to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend to have some me time with Donald Trump. To do his patriotic duty of keeping the US president up to speed on the British response to the war in Iran. And how he would have done so much better.
A round trip of the best part of 9,000 miles later, not to mention hanging around Trump’s Florida resort in his shiny suit for two days, and Nige had nothing at all to show for his sycophancy. No invitation to hang out with the Orange Manchild for even 10 minutes. Farage had checked his phone constantly. Maybe it wasn’t charged. Maybe the wifi was down. But no. Not even a WhatsApp to say thanks but no thanks. The Donald had better things to do than hang out with The Nigel.
