How has Farage fallen for the idea that the West provoked Russia?

Nigel Farage enjoyed a combative exchange with Nick Robinson in his BBC Panorama interview this evening, and acquitted himself well on many issues. True, the tax cuts and spending rises in his manifesto don’t add up – they rely on a rather over-hopeful expectation of the economy, as indeed do Labour’s. But then Farage is honest that he is not really selling us a programme for government, only giving an indication of the issues on which Reform UK will be pressing if succeeds in gaining a Commons presence. Therefore, his party can get away with some loose budgeting.

But at the same time Farage made his first big error – and one that could cost him dearly among many of his potential voters. He doubled down on previous remarks claiming that the West ‘provoked’ Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine – provoked him, that is, by allowing the eastwards expansion of Nato and the EU.