Nigel Farage has claimed that Iran “potentially poses a bigger danger than Putin poses to us”, despite Russia having nuclear weapons and waging war in Ukraine. The Reform UK leader made the remarks in an interview with the New Statesman, which are likely to reignite scrutiny of his stance on Russia.
Farage, who previously supported America’s war on Iran saying “the gloves need to come off”, was this week accused of a U-turn after stating: “If we can’t even defend Cyprus, let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.” In the New Statesman interview, given while visiting Florida and meeting members of the Trump administration, he said: “Iran’s a genuine threat to the world … If the result of this is that it stops Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, it would have been worth it.”
The comments come amid ongoing criticism of Farage’s position on Russia. He has previously expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin as a political operator and warned against “poking the Russian bear with a stick”, even accusing the EU of provoking the war in Ukraine. After widespread condemnation, he wrote that Putin’s invasion was “immoral, outrageous and indefensible”, but reiterated that “if you have neither the means nor the political will to face him down, poking a bear is obviously not good foreign policy.”
Farage also revealed that he had offered to act as a back-channel for communication with the White House, telling Sir Keir Starmer: “I know a lot of this administration, I am on text exchanges with cabinet members … if you need my help in any way at all, I will do it under the radar.” He said the prime minister had not replied. Previous attempts to serve as a back-channel to the last Trump administration under the Conservatives also ended in failure.
On Iran, Farage said he was “reasonably optimistic” and urged the Trump administration to “stick firm” on retaining the military base at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands. He claimed his White House contacts tell him that in “military terms, their respect for us is now down to just special forces”. Reform UK, he said, would take a “very different approach” to defence.
