‘Everything I do is controversial’. They were the words uttered by Nigel Farage during a tense interview with Sky News on Friday evening. He’s not wrong. The Reform leader is usually quite comfortable amid a backlash – but this certainly wasn’t the case here.
2026 Local Election results send dire warning to Labour, Tories
Reform and their MPs were looking to take a victory lap following their substantial gains in the 2026 Local Elections. They’ve claimed an additional 1,440 seats, taking control of several other local authorities in the process. Their success comes at the expense of others.
Labour have endured a torrid set of results, producing a near mirror image of Reform’s results by losing around 1,400 councillors. Their misery has also been compounded by a good night for the Green Party, who have come close to quadrupling their number of councillors after breaking the 500-mark.
The Tories have also lost 557 councillors so far. With that in mind, you would say the mood inside the Reform camp would be one of happiness and joy. But it’s not that straightforward. With great power comes great accountability – something which Robert Jenrick learned the hard way on Friday evening.
The £5 million donation haunting Nigel Farage
The closer to running the country Reform get, the tougher the questions become. That is best exemplified by the latest scandal facing Mr. Farage, after it emerged this week that he was given a £5 million donation from a Thai-based crypto-millionaire – and failed to declare it.
The donor, Christian Harborne, and Nigel Farage have both insisted the money is a personal gift and not a political one. They argue that the 61-year-old needs the funds to ensure his security. However, their case isn’t exactly watertight… as Beth Rigby found out.
The veteran journalist rained on Farage’s parade by switching tact and asking him about the multi-million pound donation during an interview on Friday. After appearing bullish at first, Nigel eventually snaps, threatening to walk out of the interview and branding it ‘a waste of space’.
WATCH: Nigel Farage loses cool in interview with Sky News
When pressed multiple times about his failure to declare the donation, Nigel Farage attempts to change the subject, and also lashes out at Sky News itself. Though he decides to stay and complete the interview, his edgy performance and terse responses only raise further questions.
Remarkably, this was the second time in 24 hours Farage had thrown a wobbly over this particular issue. On Friday morning, when one reporter tried to ask him about the money, over which a number of questions remain, Farage quickly shut him down.
The reporter told Farage: “You talked about difficult questions of funding for local councils, you’ve had some difficult questions about your own funding…” Before he could finish though, Farage dismissively said “Yeah, yeah, well we’ll talk about that any other time you like,” and moved on to another question.