Nigel Farage claims Parliament 'doesn't serve me very well' as Reform conference wraps - but what next?

MPs went back to Parliament on Monday, but Nigel Farage was thousand of miles away in Washington DC, addressing the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee over his concerns over free speech in the UK.

He told me: "There is almost no point me going to PMQs. I have to sit there, take abuse every week. I have no means of answering. It’s ridiculous."

Because Reform only has four MPs, Farage does not get a question regularly.

But the reality is that Labour see him and Reform, not the Conservatives, as the real opposition. And so repeatedly targets him.

He complains: "There can't ever have been a situation like this before.

"When you have a backbench member of Parliament who was constantly referred to by put up questions from Labour MPs, answers from the Prime Minister, and I have, you know, what do I get? Once every few months I can get up to 30 seconds. And when I do, I am shouted down."

His conclusion?

"Parliament, frankly at the moment, doesn't serve me very well."

He has a point over how much he’s targeted and how powerless he is to respond in most PMQs. And he’s passionate about the US, and of course is a long-standing friend and supporter of Donald Trump.

Mr Farage told me: "The US is our most important ally without whom we are defenseless. Defenseless."

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But, while Farage sees much to emulate in the President’s unconventional approach to governing (and there’s plenty of parallels between the two leaders), the strategy of spending time in America is not without risk.

Donald Trump is not popular with the majority of voters here, and tariffs have made life harder for British businesses.

So being seen as too close to him may put off some people who might have been tempted towards Reform.

And then there’s the optics of going to another country and loudly airing our problems and asking a foreign government to intervene over our own domestic legislation. In this case the Online Safety Act.

The US tech bros, so prominently situated behind Trump at his inauguration in January, are already up in arms about the Online Safety Act, and Farage wants it scrapped.

The broader issues of free speech, raised by JD Vance back at the Munich Security Conference in February, were given rocket fuel after comedian Graham Linehan was arrested last week by five armed guards at Heathrow airport over tweets.

At PMQs the Prime Minister accused Farage in his absence of badmouthing and talking down our country”.

And the Lib Dems went further. Deputy leader Daisy Cooper has raised Farage’s ties to Donald Trump as a potential example of foreign collusion, as her party called for the Reform leader to register himself under the Government’s Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.

The party lit up Reform HQ last night to rebrand it as ‘Trump Tower’ "to show where Farage’s loyalties really lie."

Farage doesn’t care.

Reform is on a roll. He’s favourite to be the next Prime Minister and as thing stand it looks like the party is on the path to power.

But his love of the US and his frequent absences from the UK are not without risk.