Nigel Farage

Did You Know?

• He was elected leader of UKIP on 12 September 2006 with 45 per cent of the vote, 20 points ahead of his nearest rival.
• In July 2026, while under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over undeclared gifts including one of £5 million, Farage announced his resignation as MP for Clacton, triggering a by-election which he won with 63.3% of the vote.

Early life and education

Nigel Paul Farage entered the world on 3 April 1964 in Farnborough, Kent. His mother was Barbara, née Stevens, and his father, Guy Justus Oscar Farage, worked as a stockbroker in the City of London. A 2012 BBC Radio 4 profile painted Guy as an alcoholic who walked out on the family when Nigel was five. Two years later, in 1971, Guy quit drinking and moved into the antiques trade after losing his Stock Exchange job; the following year, with friends vouching for him, he went back to the trading floor at the new Stock Exchange Tower on Threadneedle Street.

Farage mentioned in 2026 that his mother later married a local man, and he remains on good terms with both parents. His paternal grandfather, Harry Farage, fought as a private in the First World War and was injured at the Battle of Arras. The surname may trace back to a distant Huguenot ancestor, and both parents of one great-grandfather were Germans who moved to London from the Frankfurt area shortly after 1861. Farage started at Greenhayes School for Boys in West Wickham, then spent a short time at a similar school in Eden Park.

From 1975 to 1982, he attended Dulwich College, a private fee-paying school in south London, where politicians like Keith Joseph, Edward Heath, and Enoch Powell gave talks. He joined the Conservative Party in 1978 after hearing Joseph speak. In December 2025, twenty-five former pupils and one ex-teacher published an open letter in The Guardian demanding an apology for alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour during his school years; other former pupils who knew him said they recall no such conduct. Reform UK called the letter a smear, and Farage denied making the comments attributed to him.

Political career

Farage joined the Conservative Party in 1978 but voted for the Green Party in the 1989 European election due to their Eurosceptic policies. That year he joined the Anti-Federalist League, and in 1993 he was a founding member of UKIP. In 1994 he asked Enoch Powell to endorse UKIP and stand for them, which Powell declined. Former UKIP leader Alan Sked alleged that before the 1997 general election Farage urged him to drop the party's ban on former National Front members standing as candidates; Sked claimed Farage said they should not 'worry about the nigger vote.

Nig-nogs will never vote for us. Farage dismissed the allegation as 'complete rubbish' and stated that only Sked had made that claim. On 12 September 2006 Farage was elected leader of UKIP with 45 per cent of the vote. He pledged to bring discipline to the party and to end its perception as a single-issue party.

In his maiden speech to the UKIP conference on 8 October 2006, he said the party was 'at the centre-ground of British public opinion' and the 'real voice of opposition', arguing that Labour, Lib Dem, and Conservative were 'virtually indistinguishable' from each other.

Media career

On 20 January 2017, US news channel Fox News announced it had hired Farage as a commentator. He has since provided political analysis for Fox News and Fox Business Network. From January 2017 to June 2020 he hosted The Nigel Farage Show on LBC on Monday to Thursday evenings. In March 2019, Farage said on his show that Channel 4 journalist Jon Snow 'should be attacked' for his 'condescending bias' during coverage of a pro-Brexit protest; Ofcom decided Farage had not broken their broadcasting code because he clarified he meant a verbal attack.

On 31 October 2019, Farage interviewed US President Donald Trump on his LBC show; Trump criticised Boris Johnson's Brexit deal. From March to July 2018, Farage hosted a podcast called Farage Against The Machine, released every Friday, where he discussed political developments with figures he agreed and disagreed with. The American band Rage Against the Machine sent a cease and desist letter demanding a name change; Farage was unwilling to comply, prompting LBC to cancel the podcast.

In June 2021, Farage joined GB News to host the Sunday morning programme The Political Correction. In July 2021 he began hosting the Monday to Thursday evening show Farage. As of August 2024 he was earning nearly £1.2 million a year from GB News, though he said he did not receive a fixed monthly fee but was paid varying amounts as a contractor, including for media consultancy and television presenting.