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Nigel Farage not being knighted is a national disgrace – today it’s more obvious than ever

Giles Sheldrick asks why the most consequential politician of the past generation remains overlooked.

BREXIT

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)

No doubt there will be gongs aplenty for many political no marks when snivelling Sir Keir Starmer dries his eyes and starts writing his resignation honours list.

It will be peppered with the usual prizes and pats on the back for those who deserve nothing but, as is customary, are rewarded for failure.

Our preposterous soon-to-be former PM is himself a knight of the realm after being made a sir in 2014 for “services to law and criminal justice”.

Yesterday he quit – forced to throw in the towel – the result of his poor service to the country.

We can expect lowlights, has-beens, and nonentities, to be namechecked on dismal Starmer’s roll call of shame.

But it will very definitely not contain one name: Nigel Farage.

Exactly a decade ago he realised his dream as Britain voted to leave the European Union. It was, quite simply, a peasants’ revolt, a shock from which the convulsed establishment has never recovered.

Farage was shunned, ostracised, and avoided before the referendum. He has been since.

Before his time as Director of Public Prosecutions Starmer built a career as a human rights lawyer and King’s Counsel. He entered full-time politics in 2015 and became Labour leader in 2020.

Four years later he won the general election but less than two years after that was forced from his job after making such a mess of the country.

The public turned on him long ago and one by one so did his on​ce loyal party colleagues.

BREXIT

Proud patriot: Farage as an MEP in Brussels (Image: Getty)

Still, the honours will surely follow, as they always do for those who fail forward in the time honoured tradition, and one owned by this Labour government, of incentivising incompetence.

How ironic it was that blubbering Starmer, hellbent on inching Britain ever closer to the basket case of Brussels, should quit on the eve of the Brexit anniversary.

When you consider the rewards dished out for political non-achievement it is hard to disagree with Mr Farage who says he has been the victim of one long establishment stitch up.

The visionary realised a 25-year dream when the Brexit vote was won in 2016 with democratic victory coming at a cost.

Farage, 62, divorced, remarried, beat cancer and survived a near-fatal plane crash while campaigning for the UK to sever all ties with the EU. He would be the first to admit that the personal toll was worth it because of the referendum result.

He said: “Somebody had to do it. I believed this was the most important political question we would ever face in our lifetime. I didn’t see anyone else out there that had the guts to do it, so I did, and yes there was a price to pay.

“Some of the things I have campaigned for are now mainstream political opinions in this country. Yet there are still numbers of people who attempt to demonise.

“Yes, we have won, but the price is I have no life and never will.

“I don’t regret anything we did. It had to be done. Ultimately, it was worth it, but I don’t accept the unfairness of some of it.”

And he remains unapologetic, saying: “I do not change the message, change what I say. I don’t try to pander to audiences like our cosmetic politicians. I say it as I see it. If people like it, that’s terrific and if they don’t, they can take a running jump.

“It’s been a heck of a journey. I have sacrificed everything to do this, absolutely everything. I always tell my kids that when I am dead, I am going to be really popular.”

Farage might have been – still is – overlooked but he cares not one bit.

His prize – Brexit – might have been won if not delivered. Yet he also has something much greater and an honour no amount of money can buy: the backing of the British people.

It is something Starmer would do well to ponder today, if he can stop crying.

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