It's time for Nigel Farage to get off the fence

Rishi Sunak’s snap summer election means that Nigel Farage faces a decisive moment. For months if not years, Farage has held back from taking a role in the heat of the political fray. Instead, he has preferred to be a backseat driver to his ally Richard Tice as leader of the Reform UK party he created.

Sunak is banking on Labour – and Reform – being unprepared for the coming fight

Farage, as his fans claim, has ‘kept his powder dry’ as honorary president of the party, and restricted himself to commenting on politics as a presenter on GB News. He has, at times, seemingly put more effort into helping Donald Trump win back the US presidency than into British politics. The hard graft of building Reform has been left to Tice, who, while he has avoided any egregious errors, lacks Farage’s popular charisma and his appeal as a barnstorming orator.

But now that Sunak has unexpectedly fired the gun for a six-week summer election campaign, Farage’s position as a backseat driver is not sustainable.