The Andrew Neil Interviews (BBC1)****
FOR all that Nigel Farage has been central to political life for the past three years, there was a whiff of week-old leftovers about the Englishman as he met Andrew Neil’s Caledonian glare.
Neil thought so, too. This election should have been your finest hour, he told The Brexit Party leader. “Instead you’ve barely got a walk on part. What went wrong?” Come on Andra, we’ve only got half an hour before EastEnders.
It had been a difficult day for Nigel, with three of his MEPs quitting and telling voters to back the Tories. As if Mr Farage’s party had not done enough for the Conservatives in this election.
“Just after the European elections,” said Neil, “you were puffed up enough to talk about delivering a complete realignment of British politics. Now you might not win a single seat and you’re not even standing yourself.”
Nigel tried to fight back about his departed MEPs.
“One of them is the sister of a Cabinet Minister,” he said.
“Smear,” said Neil. (Since when has being related to a Minister been a smear?) “Another one has a boyfriend working for that Cabinet Minister –”
“Smear” (ditto) “Fact, and another one is a personal friend of Boris Johnson’s.”
“Smear”. (Ditto, just) Neil was having none of it. “You’re attacked from all sides of your own party. I mean it’s the same old story, Nigel Farage. We saw it with UKIP, we saw it with UKIP, it’s happening again with the Brexit Party, any party you lead soon descends into chaos and acrimony.”
Time and again, a smile arrived on Mr Farage’s lips but the emotion could not make it as far as his eyes.
Neil reminded him he had backed a referendum on any subject securing the backing of five million people. Did he know the only issue that had reached that bar? The revoke Article 50 petition. Whoopsie.
Neil spent the last three minutes of his airtime running through the points he would have put to Boris Johnson had the PM, like every other party leader, agreed to sit down with him. Negotiations had been conducted in good faith, said Neil, but to no avail. But the offer was still open.
It was all a question of trust, he said. And of courage, too. The PM of this country, he said, will at times have to stand up to presidents Trump, Putin and Xi. “It was surely not expecting too much that he spend half an hour standing up to me.”
Neil allowed the last sentence to hang there, like Mr Johnson’s reputation, and then he bade us goodnight. Missing him already.
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