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.
Pic: Reuters
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”.
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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.
Despite the ongoing market meltdown on US trade tariffs, executives at major cryptocurrency firms Messari and Sygnum are bullish on institutional Bitcoin adoption later in 2025.
Speaking on a panel at Paris Blockchain Week on April 8, Messari CEO Eric Turner and Sygnum Bank co-founder Thomas Eichenberger said they expect a significant shift in the banking sector’s involvement with crypto in the second half of the year.
According to the executives, the global banking push into Bitcoin (BTC) services has great potential to happen in the second half of 2025 as regulators embrace crypto, including stablecoins and crypto services by banks.
“I think we’re probably looking at a muted Q2, but I’m really excited for Q3 and Q4,” Messari’s Turner said during the panel discussion moderated by Cointelegraph CEO Yana Prikhodchenko, forecasting “really interesting” things coming to the crypto market in 2025.
Crypto adoption is not just about Trump
While some investors focus on the pro-crypto stance of US President Donald Trump, Turner emphasized that broader regulatory momentum is what matters most.
“When you look at the potential of having market structure regulation in the US, stablecoin regulation, and just the fact that across the board, not just President Trump himself, but the SEC and all these regulatory industries are really embracing crypto,” Turner said.
Paris Blockchain Week’s panel with Cointelegraph CEO Yana Prikhodchenko, Bancor co-founder Eyal Hertzog, Sygnum co-founder Thomas Eichenberger, Messari CEO Eric Turner, AWS fintech leader Alex Matsuo and Near chief operating officer Chris Donovan. Source: Cointelegraph
Sygnum co-founder Thomas Eichenberger said international banks with US branches are also poised to enter the market once the legal landscape becomes clearer:
“I think it’s a matter of fact that US banks are preparing to be able to offer crypto custody and at least crypto spot trading services anytime soon.”
“I think by then I would agree with you, Eric,” he continued, projecting a continued phase of market uncertainty until the US establishes a clear regulatory framework.
Related: Ripple acquires crypto-friendly prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25B
Banks are no longer afraid of Bitcoin regulators
With the establishment of clear crypto rules for banks in the US, there will be a rush for crypto services by large international banks that are incorporated outside of the US but have a US-based presence, Eichenberger said.
“Some of them may have had their strategic plans in their cupboard to offer crypto-related services, but have been afraid that at some point they will be gone after by any of the US regulatory authorities,” he said, adding:
“Now I think there’s no one to be afraid of anymore in terms of regulatory authorities worldwide. So I think many of the large international banks will launch this year.”
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Global trade tensions triggered by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff measures may come to an end with a potential deal with China as investors remain concerned about escalation from both sides.
Trump’s April 2 announcement of reciprocal import tariffs sent shockwaves through global equity and crypto markets. The measures include a 10% baseline tariff on all imported goods, effective April 5, with higher levies — such as a 34% tariff on Chinese imports — set to begin on April 9.
However, the tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach an agreement with China, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.
“In the end, almost all the other tariff negotiations and rhetoric are all about getting China to agree a deal,” Pal wrote in an April 8 X post, adding:
“That is the big prize and both China and the US understand it and need it. Everything else is negotiation posturing. China needs a weaker $ and the US needs tariffs.”
Source: Raoul Pal
“Also, the US is trying to shut down China tariff arbitrage using other channels such as Mexico or Vietnam,” Pal said.
Related: Bitcoin price can hit $250K in 2025 if Fed shifts to QE: Arthur Hayes
China retaliates with new tariffs
Considering China’s latest retaliatory measures, a resolution remains unlikely in the short term.
In response to US tariffs, China imposed a 34% tariff on all US imports effective April 10, media outlet Xinhua News reported on April 4. China’s foreign ministry also vowed to “fight till the end” against Trump’s tariffs, which it called “bullying” by the world’s largest economy.
China overtakes the US in global trade. Source: Econovis
China overtook the US in 2012 to become the world’s largest trading nation by the total value of exports and imports, surpassing $4 trillion in goods trade that year, according to The Guardian.
Crypto markets watch trade outcome closely
As the trade dispute continues to evolve, analysts say a potential agreement between the two global superpowers could serve as a key catalyst for recovery in digital asset markets.
Crypto markets have a 70% chance to bottom by June 2025 before recovering, Nansen analysts predicted.
Related: Crypto market bottom likely by June despite tariff fears: Finance Redefined
Investor appetite for risk assets such as Bitcoin will depend on the global tariff responses from other countries, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen.
“We have reached somewhat of a local bottom in regard to tariffs and the impact on prices,” the analyst said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction live show on X, adding:
“Trump came out guns blazing, and we’ve mostly seen the worst from the US side, so we’ll see if other countries are willing to drop some of the tariffs because it’s very likely the US will do the same.”
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