Dear John,
It’s funny, isn’t it? Usually the slightest whiff of scandal or the tiniest hint of a conspiracy immediately prompts very loud noises from Nigel Farage and his Reform UK posse. The party is powered by outrage, and they’re not generally short on hot takes or knee-jerk responses.
So it’s odd that during a scandal of gargantuan proportions, they’ve had very little to say. The Epstein affair has already cast a long shadow over public life – it’s helped bring down reputations at the very top, forced powerful figures out of office, and raised grim questions about how wealth and influence really operate.
You’d expect that Farage, ostensibly an anti-establishment populist, would be all over this.
So why isn’t he? It’s not that Farage himself is implicated in the Epstein files. There’s no evidence to suggest his involvement in any of Epstein’s crimes.
But Reform UK’s treasurer – and major bankroller – Nick Candy, was in contact with Epstein and his associates both before and long after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. There’s nothing illegal about that in itself, but it does raise very uncomfortable questions about the circles Reform’s leadership and funders have moved in. Not unlike the even more serious questions currently arising for Labour around Peter Mandelson.
And it gets worse than that. The files show that Epstein was working to supercharge right-wing populism in the late 2010s, to usher in a world of political chaos. “Brexit [is] just the beginning,” he wrote in an email to Palantir founder Peter Thiel, describing a future of “tribalism,” anti-globalisation, and “amazing new alliances.”
In fact, Epstein appears to have been collaborating with MAGA fixer Steve Bannon to foster a populist political revolution in Europe. Farage is explicitly named in emails between the two as an example of someone onside, with Bannon even claiming to be advising him. Bannon implies that these European political actors will help them out by championing cryptocurrencies (as Farage has) and giving them “anything else we want.”
The files make Farage look less like a genuine politician and more like the protégé of a political project by and for the rich and powerful. For all of his self-proclaimed patriotism and supposed authenticity, he comes off like a tool wielded by a global elite to advance their own unpopular agenda.
You could see how that probably isn’t great for Farage’s populist brand. Maybe it’s why he doesn’t feel the need to speak up?
