Farage kicks things off before 30 minutes of hate – and has the final word | John Crace

Farage kicks things off before 30 minutes of hate – and has the final word John Crace Reform’s ‘shadow home secretary’, Zia Yusuf, launches tirade of misery that sounded more hardline and deranged as it went I t was only last week that Nigel Farage declared he was no longer a one-man band with the announcement of a handful of key appointments. Though that does not mean his “Mini-Mes” can yet be trusted to be allowed out on their own. Baby steps and all that. Nige would rather die than let someone else hog all the limelight. It’s not that his team would screw up. That would be just fine. The worry is always that they might do too well. Might reckon they could live without him. Farage needs to watch them all like a hawk. So, fresh from his embarrassing Chagos trip that made him look like a halfwit, Nige was to be found in Dover on Monday morning. For an event that had been billed as Zia Yusuf’s first major speech as Reform’s Home Office spokesperson. It was Farage who would give the introductory speech. Farage who would control the Q&A with the media. Farage who would get to have the last word. Zia’s job was merely to act as the satellite who wouldn’t exist without Nige. To be the charisma-free zone that comes so naturally to him. To deliver his speech with as little charm as possible. The angry homunculus. Nige kicked things off. There was an invasion of foreigners. He spat out the word “diversity”. Legal migration was set to cost us £200bn. Odd that he’s so unbothered about the costs of Brexit, for which he was largely responsible. Most of the people in Gorton and Denton couldn’t even speak English, he said. We were encouraging the far-right nationalists. No one had done more than Nige to combat the rise of the far right. Really? Weirdly, Farage seems to think he occupies the centre right having fallen out with Rupert Lowe. The reality is that he has appropriated and normalised most of the far right’s ideas. Then it was time for Yusuf’s 30 minutes of hate . A tirade...