Politics Laila Cunningham nigel farage Victoria Derbyshire

Laila Cunningham tried to brush off Nigel Farage’s historically low popularity rating, but Victoria Derbyshire had a brutal fact-check for the ages

Oonagh Keating. Updated August 4th, 2026

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It’s little more than a week to the Clacton by-election, which came about because Nigel Farage really needed a distraction from the mounting financial scandals closing in on him and his Reform UK colleagues.

They include –

The £5 million given to Farage by a crypto billionaire

Several payments made to the party, Farage, and Richard Tice’s business by a convicted fraudster

The origin of money used to buy at least one of Farage’s five houses – and the non-declaration of three of those houses

Tice’s failure to declare a trip paid for by pro-Israel lobbyists before he made a pro-Israel speech in the Commons

An investigation into a large donation to Robert Jenrick’s campaign fund in 2024, which appears to have come from a US businessman not eligible to donate to UK politicians or causes.

That’s not all of Reform’s financial mysteries, but the sleaze allegations aren’t going away in a hurry – even with Farage fighting for a scrap of dignity against a man with a bin on his head.

On Monday, Reform UK announced a new major policy they say they would implement immediately after election – Operation Fortress.

This policy would see all migrant boats in the Channel forced back to France by the Royal Navy. Farage says this would stop the boats within two weeks of a Reform government.

France pointed out a few major problems with their idea.

Yet another back-of-a-fag-packet policy from the billionaires’ party.

Reform’s London Mayoral hopeful, Laila Cunningham, appeared on Newsnight, presumably thinking she could promote Operation Fortress, but Victoria Derbyshire had another point to raise.

“For me, the most serious poll is an election.”

“You’ve lost the last six, sorry, the last five by-elections… and the Greater Manchester Mayoral election, so that’s not a great track record.”

Farage’s fall from grace in the polls may be to do with his appalling record of ignoring his MP duties to swan off to the US at the drop of a free trip from the American Far Right, or it could be the changing stories about why he was given a ‘gift’ of £5 million. Who knows?

It’s not, however, because the media is picking on the poor little former Dulwich College student and commodities broker-turned-anti-establishment figurehead.

People enjoyed Victoria’s plain speaking.

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Maybe Ms Cunningham should watch more news.

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