The Farage faithful know he’s a fraud but they don’t care – at least he’s entertaining

Nigel Farage can hardly believe his luck. Having started the campaign as very much the outsider, not even planning to stand as a candidate, he is now living his very best life. Things could hardly have gone better. With the Tories lurching from crisis to crisis – insulting the vets at the D-Day commemorations and then the gambling– and Labour offering a don’t rock the boat approach, the campaign has been low on energy. Hell, no one said politics was meant to be fun, but some hope would be nice. Promising to make things a little less shit doesn’t really cut it. And there’s no vacuum into which Nige won’t jump head first. Anything for attention. He’s learned his narcissism at Donald Trump’s knee.

The queue in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, snaked back at least 100 yards. And that was at 11am, an hour before the start. While Rish! and Starmer have gone out of their way to meet as few members of the public as possible Nige adores an old-fashioned rally. And, it seems, this crowd were more than up for it. They wanted a politician who made them feel good about themselves and talked to their insecurities. Forget the policies, stay for the LOLs.

After brief warm-up acts from two local Reform candidates, Farage took the stage to loud techno music pumped out through ageing speakers, flashing lights and an indoor firework display. The audience rose to their feet to join in the fun. Nige stood there, lapping it up. He couldn’t get enough of the applause. He was not here to make a difference. He was here to feel whole. Without a crowd he’s uncertain whether he exists.

But there was undeniably a connection. One that Sunak and Starmer would kill for and one that allows Nige to get away with almost anything. You’d expect a crowd like this to have worked out Farage long ago. A posh boy with no real interest in the north-east. They appeared to buy into his act. They knew he was a fraud, but they didn’t care. At least he was an entertaining fraud. They liked him for what he was not – neither Tory nor Labour.

This was a show more than a speech. Nige’s time working the neocon circuit in the US for four years has paid dividends. He now has the air of a televangelist. Asides to people in the front row. You half expected him to interrupt his flow and make an appeal for donations to his favourite charity. The Bank of St Nigel.

He talked for well over half an hour. No notes because this was a greatest hits event. He couldn’t believe he had packed out the arena in a matter of days. A humblebrag. Then into his familiar tropes. The country wasn’t working. You couldn’t move without someone wanting to rob you. Farage would be distraught to find out most people aren’t afraid to walk the streets. Too many immigrants. He’d always said so. Even when there had been very few. Leave the ECHR. Join Russia and Belarus. “We must not set people apart from one another,” he said. That’s literally what he does. Then a few vague promises. Pay less tax. Though no mention of how he would pay for anything.

You may hate it, but Nige is reaching parts of the country that no other party is. People like him because he legitimises their anger. He tears things down with no thought for a rebuilt future. Next week he will be in parliament. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Nige’s time working the neocon circuit in the US over the past four years has paid dividends. He has the air of a televangelist