Laila Cunningham clashed with Victoria Derbyshire on Newsnight on Tuesday after Derbyshire challenged Nigel Farage’s claim that the establishment could not beat Reform UK fairly. Cunningham replied that Farage was not part of the establishment and said the establishment was the, The Times, and political insiders.
Derbyshire pushed back by describing Farage as a privately educated city broker who had been part of the political class for 30 years. She also said he was a multimillionaire with five properties and that his party was funded by a billionaire.
Nigel Farage on Tuesday
The exchange landed on the same day Farage announced his resignation as MP of Clacton in a public address. He said he had been subject to constant demonisation by the press, that he had done nothing wrong, and that his resignation was meant to trigger a people versus the establishment by-election in Clacton.
Farage also said he had been attacked again and again and called himself “the most physically and verbally attacked public figure or politician of modern times.” He said treatment of his family, specifically his daughter, prompted him to step down that week.
Victoria Derbyshire and Laila Cunningham
Derbyshire quoted Farage’s address and said, “The establishment has now decided they can't beat us fairly”. Farage is a privately educated city broker who's been a member of the political class for 30 years,” before adding, “He's a multimillionaire, he's got five properties. His party is funded by a billionaire; he couldn't be more establishment, could he?”
Cunningham answered, “Nigel's not part of the establishment at all,” then pressed her own case more directly: “The establishment is the ” and “The establishment is The Times.” She added that the establishment was “political insiders trying to make a decision when the only decision that counts is the electorates.”
Clacton and the by-election
The clash matters because it sat inside the same political moment as Farage’s resignation and his bid to frame the contest in Clacton as a fight against established institutions. The open question now is how that argument lands with voters after the row aired and after Farage tied his departure to his daughter’s treatment and to the by-election he wants to force.
