Politics

Is Nigel Farage’s Ukraine gaffe the first mistake of his election campaign?

Published

1 year ago

June 21, 2024

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Has Nigel Farage made his first blunder of the election campaign?

His incendiary claim that the West provoked the war in Ukraine will be offensive to many people.

It may make some of those Conservative supporters considering switching to Reform UK on 4 July think again.

And a clarification in a late-night tweet appearing to row back from his earlier claims in a TV interview suggests he may have realised he went too far.

“I am one of the few figures that have been consistent and honest about the war with Russia,” he posted on X.

“Putin was wrong to invade a sovereign nation and the EU was wrong to expand eastward.

“The sooner we realise this, the closer we will be to ending the war and delivering peace.”

His earlier comments were straight out of the playbook of his friend Donald Trump.

But if it was his intention to provoke a row and gain him publicity, it may have backfired this time.

Mr Farage claimed in his interview he warned back in 2014, when he was a UKIP member of the European Parliament, that there would be a war in Ukraine.

He blamed the “ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union” for giving Vladimir Putin a reason to go to war.

His critics will say it’s not just a conspiracy theory, but a dangerous crackpot theory of the sort Mr Trump would peddle.

It’s also a claim that ought to make those Conservatives who want to welcome Mr Farage into their party with open arms change their mind.

His comments do appear, however, to have brought about a change in the way senior Tories have treated Mr Farage in this election campaign and made them wake up to his threat.

Until now Rishi Sunak and his senior colleagues have barely laid a glove on the politician who has vowed to destroy their party and take over as the official opposition to Labour.

Mr Sunak has – feebly – said he understands the anger of those Conservatives who are frustrated by his government’s record and are tempted to vote for Reform UK.

The most that cabinet ministers have said against Mr Farage up to now is that a vote for Reform UK is a vote to put Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street with a “super-majority”.

That approach seems to have changed now.

James Cleverly, surely a leadership contender in the event of a Tory defeat, led the criticism, but even he could have gone further.

“Just Farage echoing Putin’s vile justification for the brutal invasion of Ukraine,” he said.

Really? Is that it, Mr Cleverly?

Sir Liam Fox, a former defence secretary, said: “The West did not ‘provoke this war’ in Ukraine and it is shocking that Nigel Farage should say so.”

It was Ben Wallace, the most recent former defence secretary, who – not for the first time – said what other senior Tories should have said in condemning Mr Farage.

He said the Reform UK leader was “voicing sympathy for a dictator who deployed nerve agents on the streets of Britain” – a reference to the Salisbury poisoning attack.

And in a jibe no doubt intended to rile Mr Farage, he said he was “more Chamberlain than Churchill”.

That should have the Reform UK leader choking on his warm beer.

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But it was Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey who launched the kind of stinging attack that we should have heard from Conservative cabinet ministers.

He denounced Mr Farage as a “Putin apologist” who “would rather lick Vladimir Putin’s boots than stand up for the people of Ukraine”.

Maybe Mr Farage was being deliberately provocative with his comments and intending to provoke a political row.

After all, he craves attention and relishes controversy.

After Mr Sunak’s D-Day fiasco, for instance, he claimed the PM “doesn’t understand our culture” and portrayed himself as a champion of veterans and the armed forces.

Since he wrestled the leadership of Reform UK from Richard Tice, he has campaigned for more defence spending, increasing the size of the army and better housing for soldiers.

But his remarks will dismay the many Britons who have taken the suffering people of Ukraine to their hearts and in many cases taken the country’s refugees into their homes.

And so despite his appearing to justify his remarks in his tweet, his pro-Putin comments may have been a gaffe too far for undecided voters who have until now been sympathetic to his outspoken views.

Politics

Starmer refuses to rule out manifesto-breaking tax rises in budget

Published

4 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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Starmer refuses to rule out manifesto-breaking tax rises in budget

The prime minister has refused to rule out manifesto-breaking tax hikes in next week’s budget while speaking to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby.

Sir Keir Starmer was interviewed by Rigby while the pair were in South Africa for a meeting of the G20 group of nations.

Despite the government last year indicating it was not going to raise more taxes, it appears that Wednesday’s fiscal event will involve substantial increases in levies.

The 2024 Labour manifesto said: “We will ensure taxes on working people are kept as low as possible.

“Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase national insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or VAT.”

At the start of their interview, the prime minister was asked by Rigby if it was important for politicians to “stick to their word”.

Sir Keir said: “Yes, it is important that politicians stick to their word.

“They have to make decisions against a political backdrop. And, we’ve also got big decisions to make in the budget that’s coming in just a few days time.”

This caveat matches the expectations that a range of taxes are going to be increased so the government can keep its spending pledges and increase its fiscal headroom amid worsening economic headwinds.

There was chaos last week after the increase in income tax that many had expected to be on the way was revealed to no longer be on the cards.

Asked specifically on the manifesto commitment on tax, Sir Keir told Rigby that decisions will be made “against a very difficult backdrop”.

In total, the prime minister refused 12 times to rule out tax rises.

He added it was “important to take the right decisions for our country”.

Rigby pointed out in the lead-up to the 2024 Budget, the prime minister was more unequivocal, saying income tax, national insurance and VAT would not all go up.

The prime minister declined to make the same promise, saying the decisions on tax will be announced on Wednesday.

However, Sir Keir said the budget will be guided by “principles”, including “fairness”.

The prime minister said the three areas he is “bearing down on” are the NHS, cutting national debt and dealing with the cost of living crisis.

One tax rise that has not been ruled out is what is known as a “stealth tax rise” of freezing income tax thresholds.

Rigby highlighted that in last year’s budget, Rachel Reeves said freezing thresholds will “hurt working people” – and asked the prime minister if he agreed.

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Sir Keir said: “We are going to set out our decisions.

“We will have absolutely in mind that the cost of living is the number one issue for people across the country.”

Pushed again, if working people will have their taxes increased, the prime minister instead mentioned he has people who are “struggling with the cost of living” in mind when making decisions.

Politics

Ex-Coinbase lawyer announces run for New York Attorney General, citing crypto policy

Published

5 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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Ex-Coinbase lawyer announces run for New York Attorney General, citing crypto policy

Khurram Dara, a former policy lawyer at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, officially launched his campaign for New York State Attorney General.

In a Friday notice, Dara cited his “regulatory and policy experience, particularly in the crypto and fintech space” among his reasons to try to unseat Attorney General Letitia James in 2026.

The former Coinbase lawyer had been hinting since August at potential plans to run for office, claiming that James had engaged in “lawfare” against the crypto industry in New York.

Law, Politics, New York, Elections — *Source:* *Khurram Dara*

Until July, Dara was the regulatory and policy principal at Bain Capital Crypto, the digital asset arm of the investment company. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked as Coinbase’s policy counsel from June 2022 to January 2023 and was previously employed at the crypto companies Fluidity and Airswap.

James, who took office in 2019, has faced criticism from many in the crypto industry for filing lawsuits against companies on behalf of affected New Yorkers, including Genesis, KuCoin and NovaTech. Whoever assumes the role of New York’s attorney general would have significant discretion over whether to file charges against crypto companies.

Dara, who said he plans to run as a Republican, also echoed Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s recent winning campaign, citing New Yorkers’ concerns about the cost of living and affordability. Cointelegraph reached out to Dara for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

The lawyer who represented XRP holders is also running for office again

As the deadline approached for candidates for various offices to announce their runs, former Massachusetts senatorial candidate John Deaton said he would try to unseat a Democrat again.

Deaton ran against Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2024, losing by about 700,000 votes. On Nov. 10, however, he announced he would run as a Republican again, attempting to unseat Senator Ed Markey in 2026.