EXCLUSIVE The truth about Nigel Farage's coup. Insiders reveal to ANDREW PIERCE the 'high and mighty' Tory advisors with 'blood on their hands' after convincing Rishi to snub Nigel and the frantic helicopter ride that sealed the deal By Andrew Pierce for the Daily Mail Published: 02:09, 5 June 2024 | Updated: 06:56, 5 June 2024 e-mail 43 View comments Hurtling over the English countryside on the helicopter flight back to London – after campaigning behind the fabled Red Wall in the north of England – there was only one topic of conversation among Nigel Farage and four of his closest aides. They were trying to persuade him to change his mind and run for Parliament.
They had been profoundly struck by how he had been mobbed on Saturday in the Nottinghamshire constituency of Ashfield, where Lee Anderson is defending the seat for Reform after defecting from the Tories . And as the chopper headed south, Farage's opinion was shifting fast in their direction. When they arrived at Battersea heliport, Farage narrowly avoided bumping into Rishi Sunak and the Hollywood star Tom Cruise , who had both landed there only minutes earlier.
Buoyed by his reception in the north – and earlier in the week at Dover in Kent – Farage decided to have a pint at The Ship, a nearby pub in the fashionable south-west London borough of Wandsworth. The capital has never been fertile territory for Reform, dominated as it is by liberal-minded bien pensants. Yet Farage was asked for literally dozens of s.
