All eyes are on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in today’s local elections, which sees voting taking place in 23 councils across England. Six mayoral elections are also taking place and voters in Runcorn and Helsby are electing their new MP following the resignation of a former Labour MP.
For decades, the Runcorn and Helsby constituency has been a Labour strongholder. However, Reform UK is hoping for a major upset with its first by-election victory. As voters head to the ballot, we take a closer look at Farage’s rise to politics…
The son of a stockbroker, Farage was born on April 3, 1964, in the picturesque village of Farnborough, Kent. Interested in politics from an early age, the future UKIP leader got himself into trouble at school at the age of 17, when English teacher Chloe Deakin, wrote Dulwich College headmaster, David Emms, urging him to reconsider the appointment of Farage as a prefect, given concerns over the schoolboy’s alleged fascist views.
She wrote: “Another colleague, who teaches the boy, described his publicly professed racist and neo-fascist views; and he cited a particular incident in which Farage was so offensive to a boy in his set, that he had to be removed from the lesson.
“This master stated his view that this behaviour was precisely why the boy should not be made a prefect. Yet another colleague described how, at a Combined Cadet Force (CCF) camp organised by the college, Farage and others had marched through a quiet Sussex village very late at night shouting Hitler Youth songs.”
In his 2010 memoir Fighting Bull, Farage referenced this incident, but claimed the outcry over him becoming a prefect was on account of his admiration for Enoch Powell, a politician known for his strong views against immigration.
Addressing this episode again during a Channel 4 interview in 2013, Farage argued that while he was a “troublemaker” in his youth, he was not involved in far-right politics. He admitted: “I did say things that would offend deeply. And there were certainly two or three members of the English staff I made arguments against, that I didn’t necessarily believe in. But any accusation I was ever involved in far-right politics is utterly untrue.”
Farage also dismissed the notion that he’d shouted out Hitler Youth Songs, as “silly”, insisting: “I don’t know any Hitler youth songs, in English or German.”
At the age of 18, Farage decided to forgo a university education, instead carving out a career as a commodities trader in the City. Initially a Conservative, the young Farage became disillusioned with the party in 1992 following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty.
Formally known as The Treaty on European Union, this foundation treaty of the European Union (EU) heralded as “a new stage in the process of European integration”, and structured the EU around three core pillars: the European Communities (economic and monetary affairs), Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and Justice and Home Affairs (JHA).
After leaving the Tory Party in protest, the following year, staunch Eurosceptic Farage went on to become a founding member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a right-wing populist party established primarily to push for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
In 1999, Farage became an MEP for South-East England, and in September 2006, he was elected leader of UKIP. As head of the party, Farage broadened UKIP’s focus on leaving the EU to include a number of policy issues, with tighter border controls against immigration being a particularly prominent talking point.
After being elected as leader, Farage described UKIP as the “real voice of opposition”, telling BBC Five Live: “A lot of people… feel like me that we’re not being given a choice, we’re being given no opportunity, that there is no real voice of opposition in British politics – that is what UKIP is here to provide”.
That same year, former Conservative leader David Cameron referred dismissively to UKIP as “a bunch of … fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists mostly”, and refused to give in to Farage’s demands for an apology.
Ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum, Farage played a leading role. Following the vote to leave the EU he stepped down as leader of UKIP, stating his “political ambition has been achieved”.
While the UK was in the process of leaving the UK, Farage came out of political retirement to lead the Brexit Party, which later changed its name to Reform UK. After stepping back from frontline politics again in March 2021, Farage took over as Reform UK’s leader and, after seven failed bids to become an MP, finally secured a seat.
Farage met his first wife, Gráinne Hayes, after he was hit by a car in November 1985. The Irish nurse treated him in the hospital, where he almost lost his leg.
Reflecting on his ordeal in a 2015 interview with The Telegraph, Farage, who was left requiring a cast for 11 months, said: “My recovery was a miserable period: I was put on traction — a series of pulleys and weights — but the treatment saved my leg. It put paid to any more golf — but I married the nurse who treated me. A cliché, I know, but not only did I get my life back, I got a wife and two fantastic sons.”
The couple tied the knot in 1988 and went on to welcome two sons, Samuel, born in 1989, and Thomas, born in 1991. For a time, the marriage appeared to be a happy one. In his 2011 memoir Flying Free, Farage recalled: “We were happy. But then we were both working full time, and I was on a roll [in finance], so happy was easy.”
They divorced in 1997, with Farage explaining that their marriage had “expired” after having “been on ice and torpid with its claws bound for so long that we had both forgotten it was alive at all.” Unlike her ex-husband, Gráinne appears to live a very quiet, private life and has not publicly commented on the matter.
Two years after his divorce, Farage married German government bond broker Kirsten Mehr, with whom he welcomed two children, Victoria, born in 2000, and Isabelle, born in 2005. Looking back on the moment they met, Farage recalled: “She was a stunning government bond broker whose brisk efficiency at first sight belied her ethereal appearance. She could have stepped into a pre-Raphaelite painting no questions asked.”
During this second marriage, Farage’s career continued to flourish, and his divisive rise to prominence eventually took its toll. In February 2017, amid rumours of a troubled marital bond, Kirsten issued the following statement to PA: “My husband and I have lived separate lives for some years, and he moved out of the family home a while ago. This is a situation that suits everyone and is not news to any of the people involved.”
Three months after this announcement, Farage admitted that his political career had left him “separated” and “skint”, during an interview with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s journalist sister, Rachel Johnson. Shedding some light on how the marriage disintegrated, Farage shared: ”I’m not very married at the moment, let’s put it like that. I think separated is my legal status. I don’t think anything would have survived what I’ve been doing for the past five years.
“Not that I’ve been perfect – I’m not – but it’s been pretty awful. Just hellish, really. I’m talking about the sheer nastiness and aggro that comes with this, that this whole Trotskyite and hard-left movement are now the Remainers. There is no life left. The last time I went out with the family, we were assaulted by 80 people.”
Nowadays, Farage is in a long-term relationship with French politician Laure Ferrari, who he reportedly first met while she was working as a waitress in Strasbourg back in 2007. That same year, Farage hired Laure as his parliamentary assistant.
There had been whispers of a romance between Farage and Laure since 2017. The pair eventually confirmed they were indeed an item in November 2023, when Laure, 46, flew out to Australia to support Farage following his stint on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Speaking with the Mail at the time, Laure said: “’I see it as my duty to support him. When he was invited onto I’m A Celebrity, we talked about it. I saw it as a massive opportunity for him to shine. He was more thoughtful about it. He consulted his family and friends. It was a team effort that got him to appear.”
On election day in 2010, Farage was in a horror plane crash that left him with a number of injuries after a UKIP-promotting banner got caught in the plane’s tail fin, causing it to plummet to the ground.
Having been dragged from the wreckage, Farage was taken to hospital with multiple injuries including broken ribs, a split sternum and a punctured lung. At the time a spokesperson for Farage said: “We’ve both had a miraculous escape. We are both very lucky to be alive. He’s got two broken ribs, a small chip to his spine, and damage to his sternum.”
Three years later, Farage revealed he’d undergone a “very major operation” to help with the health problems caused by the crash, telling the BBC that he’d had “a couple of discs removed from my neck and replaced”. In 2015, told The Telegraph that he was getting “increasingly terrible pain” in his shoulder and back and was receiving hospital treatment twice a week.
During his appearance on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2023, Farage was asked about the accident by his co-stars. When they questioned what he was doing in the moments before, he said: “Being an idiot, flying a banner.”
Fellow campmate Fred Sirieix then asked what was on the banner, to which Farage replied: “A Brexit message, obviously…” When probed for more details, he continued: “Vote for independence or something like that.”
As they discussed the topic, Farage also detailed the extent of his injuries. “I don’t recall being unconscious, but I do recall the explosion, the plane flipping over, being stuck in there, everything broken… every rib front and back, split sternum, punctured lung… it was bad,” he said. However, he added that he didn’t stay in hospital for as long as he “should have” as he discharged himself due to boredom.
Farage went on: “When bad things happen to you in life you’ve got to make a decision. Have I been unlucky, have I been lucky? I’ve had a few things happen which I think does actually help with thinking, ‘Sod it I’m going to do what I believe.’”
In recent months Farage’s relationship with US President Donald Trump has come under the spotlight, though their friendship dates back further than that. The pair first met back in 2016 when they met not long after Farage stepped down as UKIP leader after winning the Brexit referendum.
A “chance meeting” at a bar at the Republic Convention led to delegates in Mississippi inviting Farage to talk about his success of the Brexit campaign at a dinner. At the dinner, Farage says he discovered Trump, who was running as the presidential candidate for the Republican Party at the time, was having a rally the following night and wanted him to say something.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday in 2016, Farage revealed he was apprehensive about meeting Trump all those years ago. He labelled Trump’s campaign as being “highly controversial” and added that some of the now-President’s comments had “not looked good and left him open to accusations of extremism”.
Despite this, Farage was charmed by Trump. Addressing their first meeting, he wrote: “I was surprised, even slightly overwhelmed, by the warmth of his welcome and his huge support for Brexit.”
Since then Farage has been an enthusiastic cheerleader for the US President and in January he headed to the US to celebrate the returning President’s inauguration – something he called “upbeat and optimistic”. Shortly after returning to the UK, Farage sparked complaints following an appearance on This Morning in which he discussed the US President.
“I will never forget the victory rally on the eve of Inauguration and there’s Trump, and Village People come on stage, and he’s dancing on stage with them. You can like Trump, you can loathe him, but he’s won fair and square,” he said.
Meanwhile, in February he called Trump an “inspiration” while at a Reform UK rally. Speaking in front of hundreds of supporters in a hotel marquee, Farage said: “I hope and believe that many things that will happen in America will serve as an inspiration to us.”
Although he’s shown his support for the President, Farage has expressed his disagreement at some of Trump’s plans. In April he claimed Trump had tried to do “too much too soon” after he introduced tariffs which sent markets around the world plummeting.
Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com
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