Nigel Farage has defended his decision to sign an agreement with far-right French party National Rally – whose previous incarnation, the Front National, was founded by Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen.
At the Reform UK conference in Birmingham on Friday, Farage and National Rally president Jordan Bardella signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at tackling small boat crossings.
The agreement describes both parties as ones “committed to the primacy of the nation state, secure borders, the expulsion of illegal migrants and the preservation of their national identity”.
In goes on to say that both countries, if both parties are electorally successful, “commit to pursuing a restrictive national immigration policy that puts an end to any incentive for illegal immigration”.
Farage, however, was hesitant over signing up to an alliance with National Rally’s predecessor party, the Front National.
In 2014, then Front National leader – and current National Rally French presidential candidate – Marine Le Pen accused the then Ukip leader of slander after he rejected a European Parliament alliance citing "prejudice and antisemitism" in her party.
Farage’s previous criticism was raised by reporters at a joint press conference between the two leaders.
The Reform UK leader said that when he was first elected as a Member of the European Parliament he was “nervous” of the party when it was led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine’s father, a Holocaust denier who founded the Front National in 1972. Farage said that he did not want a relationship with the party when it was led by him.
“That wasn't a party we would have done a deal with. And so, when Marine took over, I watched and I think what she has done with the party, moving it away, getting rid of those extreme elements, putting it into the mainstream of French national debate is a massive achievement,” he told reporters.
In 2015, Marine Le Pen expelled by her father from the party he founded and she has sought to disassociate herself from his more extreme views.
She has vowed to be a “shield” against antisemitism and spoken about the dangers of radical Islam.
During the 2024 presidential election, French President Emmanual Macron criticised Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amihai Chikli for speaking favourably about her candidacy.
“It is excellent for Israel that she will be the president of France,” he told Israeli TV, claiming that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been of a similar opinion.
Reform UK’s conference has so far been dominated by the decision of two key Reform officials to step down pending an investigation after a Channel 4 documentary produced undercover footage appearing to show party officials acting in breach of campaign finance laws.
Speaking to reporters, Farage read out a statement in which he said that “the party has done nothing wrong, taken no illegal money – in fact, no money was taken at all”.
Farage then chastised his now-suspended aide for what he described as “loose pub talk” which he said included “a couple of boasts that simply were not true”.
He went on: “In the video when he says ‘we've done it with x, we've done it with y’, well the reason the Channel 4 haven't broadcast the names of x and y is because it isn't true. Donations from the names that were mentioned have not occurred.”
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