As Reform UK activists bopped to Boney M’s “Rasputin” at the party’s conference in Birmingham, the lyrics offered an oddly apt soundtrack to the turmoil engulfing the party.
The song tells the story of a man who got dangerously close to power, acquired extraordinary influence over a ruler and ultimately overstepped the mark.
Only hours earlier, Nigel Farage had sacked two senior aides after a Channel 4 News undercover investigation appeared to show them discussing the possibility of accepting foreign donations – leading to claims the party had breached electoral law.
Shorts
The men at the centre of the sting were not bit-part players. Dan Jukes, Farage’s senior political adviser, and James Orr, Reform’s head of policy, were both members of the leader’s inner circle, with Farage’s ear and a hand in running his increasingly ambitious political operation.
