The row over Nigel Farage’s non-appearance on Thursday’s Question Time from Clacton – surely the first time anyone has complained about Farage NOT being on the BBC show – may have fizzled out. But a new storm is brewing in Sunderland, the place Reform’s leader visited instead.
Social media was up in arms when Farage was not among the guests for a QT in his own constituency, which for some reason he rarely visits. Yet his explanation – that the show bans MPs from appearing in shows held in the places they represent – was backed up by programme makers. They explained that when the likes of Lucy Powell and Mike Tapp had appeared on episodes filmed in Manchester and Dover, these had been one-off specials on a single issue and therefore exempt from the rule.
Reform was represented on the show by public schoolboy turned reality star Thomas ‘Bosh’ Skinner, while its leader was launching the party’s local election campaign on Teesside and fielding questions about the embarrassing fall-out from his controversial visit to Ipswich Town FC earlier in the week. The Portman Road club first attempted to paint as a private tour organised by Farage himself before it emerged that CEO Mark Ashton had organised the visit, lunched with the far right politician and then given him six ‘Farage 10’ Ipswich shirts free of charge.
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The incident has caused complaints among Tractor Boys players and staff, with fan groups also furious. And the same pattern seems set to be repeated at Sunderland, after Farage told journalists that he had been invited to attend a Black Cats match by club director Juan Sartori, who he met at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. Satori, from Uruguay, is the son-in-law of Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev.
The offer has split Sunderland fans. While some on the popular RTG message board supported Farage, others wrote of their dismay, with one commenter writing, “I’d struggle to think of a more stupid move… the club are riding high with a sense of real togetherness and collective purpose. Inviting the most divisive man in the county to preach hatred would ruin so much hard work.” Another said: “He can fuck off and so can the club if they allow this shit.”
Black Cats players are currently away from the club on international duty. So it remains to be seen how Muslim players like club captain Granit Xhaka and Reinildo Mandava will respond to the club giving VIP treatment to the man who last week described the open iftar in Trafalgar Square as an attempt to “overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life”.
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