'Can Reform become the official Opposition? Not while Farage is a one-man band,' says Lord Kulveer Ranger

No matter what mind-numbing stunt the Liberal Democrats come up with in their desperate ‘look at us’ strategy, it is Mr Farage that the mainstream media now cannot wait to get their cameras on and an interview with.

So, I was quite disappointed watching ITV’s Good Morning Britain (other channels are available!) with the experienced broadcaster Susanna Reid and the long-ago former Labour chancellor Ed Balls seeming to be tag-teaming our Nigel as he tried to answer their questions.

The problem for them seemed to be the answers he was giving were not what they wanted to hear.

They wanted him to admit he was ashamed of his candidates because some had been discovered to not be ideal parliamentary candidate material. They wanted him to be rattled.

They wanted him to be outrageous and use words like ‘invasion’ when referring to immigrants and he didn’t. For whether you like him or not, Nigel Farage is a formidable politician. He has decades of experience.

He is deft on his feet, knows what he believes in and is a great communicator, which means ‘normal people’ (which includes Labour’s working people) understand him.

But there is much more to Mr Farage. We know that he and President Trump are very close. It takes a populist to know a populist. And Farage has seen the success achieved by the individualist Donald Trump when he turned his guns on the political establishment. When people lose faith in politicians and want someone ‘to drain the swamp.’

When people look to alternative media sources because they struggle to feel relevant with the mainstream media.

All of which enables a populist to define himself as the people’s champion and in terms of the US, this has meant that Trump in business language has completed an aggressive takeover of a weak, leadership lacking Republican Party that now entirely bends to his personal will.

For this is the playbook that Farage is now applying in the UK. Aided and abetted by a weak Conservative Party, mainstream media that look down at him and his well-honed populist touch.

So what is to stop Farage undertaking a similar coupe of right-wing politics in the UK, becoming the official political opposition, and even setting his sights on getting to No10. The answer is, Nigel Farage.

We Brits do not vote for a Presidential individual. However, many people try to tell us our politics is moving ever more towards a US style. We have political parties that are well established, defined by their beliefs and values and work based on collective responsibility via a cabinet based governmental structure.

Yes, these Parties do move in their positioning on the political spectrum, and this does depend on the leadership they have at any given time. But the British electorate has generally stuck firm to our Party first, individual second model.

Why? Because it protects us from individualists and too much power being placed into the hands of a few or even the one. Here lies Nigel’s problem. For all his qualities, he and his party are a one-man band. Take him out and what do you have?

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I acknowledge the efforts of Richard Tice and even Dr David Bull, but this really is the Farage show and this is the achillies heal for Reform to be a serious force in British politics.

Farage is right to say that this election is for him a stepping stone to the next in potentially 2029. But in the present, who does Reform have to deal with the specifics and details when it comes to national defence, international affairs, education etc.

Yes, Nigel can speak well to many briefs, and as I said at the start, listen long enough and you can hear a mesmerising tune. The problem is he is a soloist, but he needs to be part of a quality choir if Reform are truly going to be able to rule Britannia and Farage has never shown he able to be part of a team.

But there is one modern day politician who has managed to combine being a supreme populist and get his political Party to dance to his own unique tune. However, at the moment Boris Johnson is celebrating turning an energetic sixty by spending time with his family and friends, writing his memoirs and no doubt thinking about getting the band together in the future.