Nigel Farage’s attack on the RNLI and co is a new low even for this bottom-feeder

Farage’s plan to address that slide seems chaotic, to say the least. He has taken to lashing out at the media in intemperate rants, launched a pointless by-election for his own seat in a fit of pique, and his party is now claiming to have reported ITV News to the police, for the supposed crime of journalism.

But Farage’s increasingly desperate bid for relevance hit a new low this week, as the Reform leader decided the best way to communicate with the British electorate was to sit down for an interview with the US far right influencer Benny Johnson, a disgraced former BuzzFeed staffer who was fired for plagiarism.

Showing just how much his journalism and fact-checking has improved over the last decade, the clueless Johnson asked Farage whether he believed “in criminal penalties for those who facilitated this invasion of the English Isles [sic]?”

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Farage, who relentlessly styles himself as a proud British patriot, who wraps himself in the Union flag any chance he gets, didn’t bother correcting his host as he got the name of the country Farage seeks to lead wrong. Instead, he just accepted the far right premise.

“Totally, totally,” Farage agreed. “The role of the NGO – the role of those that are sponsored by taxpayers’ money, because they’re nice, they’re good, they’re kind – they have actually aided and abetted criminality in absolutely every way.

“These are deluded, hard-left socialist Marxists, who don’t believe in countries, don’t believe in borders, don’t believe in identities, are intent on destroying everything that exists.”

Farage did not name the RNLI in his answer on this occasion, but he has previously referred to the service – for which brave volunteers risk their lives, for no reward, to rescue those at sea – as a “migrant taxi service”. Now, it seems, he wants to put anyone volunteering to save lives on notice that they might face prosecution by Farage if they rescue anyone he doesn’t like.

The RNLI is not an ultra-woke charity set up to help asylum seekers. Instead, it operates by one simple principle: its stated purpose is “saving lives at sea”, with the aspiration “to save every one”. If you get in trouble at sea around the UK, and the RNLI hears about it, they’ll try to rescue you first, and ask questions later.

Most decent people would think of that as the best of Britain. Nigel Farage, it seems, wants the service to act differently. If the RNLI finds you drowning at sea, would he prefer for them to ask for you to produce your passport before they fish you out of the water? If you’re unfortunate enough to be drowning without the correct identification to hand, should they leave you to drown?

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Farage’s ideas are as grotesque and ridiculous as that. The RNLI does not decide who is or is not a legitimate refugee. That is the work of the government. And yet, it seems like Farage would project this onto them. At present, more than half of people arriving to the UK on small boats are eventually found by the courts to be legitimate refugees. Should RNLI officers be working that out on sea around a sinking boat?

Farage is venal, not stupid. He is clever enough to know the idea of criminalising rescue at sea is unworkable, and would be grotesque if attempted. He is also aware that prosecuting it retroactively would effectively shut down all lifeboat operations across the nation if it seemed like a serious risk. It’s just that with his own political career at stake, he simply doesn’t care.

If Farage suddenly cares about obeying the law, he could get his own house in order: Reform is facing multiple police investigations, alongside inquiries from the Electoral Commission, around dodgy donors, illicit activities by his staff, and his own personal conduct. 

Farage is failing to run a medium-sized business in line with the law, and yet is demanding the right to shape an entire country’s legal system. 

Giving an interview to Benny Johnson is itself a sign of desperation. Suggesting you’d like to jail the brave volunteers who save lives at sea just looks like Farage is giving up on the prospect of winning the next election entirely. 

Nigel Farage is drowning, and not even the RNLI will be able to save him from himself.