Allowing a Eurosceptic like Farage, who has consistently supported Russia, to hold balance of power would pose a threat to national security
Nigel Farage is so consumed with being anti-Europe, that he has chosen to fall on one side of a world view Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Nick Thomas-Symonds is the Cabinet Office minister.
Published 23 June 2026
Nigel Farage said the EU had blood on its hands for Ukraine. That must never, ever be forgotten.
It is a decade since we voted to leave the EU, but what happens over the next decade is far more serious. War on the Continent has shaped the past four years, and security is no longer an addendum but the core principle and north star that leads our Continent’s decisions.
While our relationships with China or Argentina exist in complex grey zones, our stance on Russia has always been clear-cut. Most people would very much agree that there is no illusion that Russia is a friend of the United Kingdom. Apart from one guy.
Mr Farage has consistently supported Russia, and tried to pretend that our interests could ever align with a dictator’s. From declaring in 2014 that “I think the European Union, frankly, does have blood on its hands in the Ukraine”, and that he didn’t want a “European foreign policy”, to suggesting in 2024 that Nato and the EU’s “eastward expansion” gave a reason for Vladimir Putin to “go to war”.
His rationale for doing so, it seems, has been to undermine the favourability of the EU. So consumed with being anti-Europe, engrossed by an ideological necessity for separation, he has chosen to fall on one side of a world view. The wrong side. And his admission that he had received a £5m gift for his 27-year campaign against the EU – an extraordinary sum of money – followed by a trail of shifting stories, first claimed as personal security, then called a reward for his campaign.
It forces us to ask a fundamental question: Whose interests is he really serving? Allowing a world view sympathetic to Putin to hold the balance of power would be an unprecedented threat to national security. Because you can be Eurosceptic, or supportive of Brexit, while also recognising the necessity for our continent to join together in collective security efforts, and support Ukraine. It is not a binary choice. But Mr Farage has made his extremist views clear.
He doesn’t think national security and support for Ukraine must transcend Brexit politics, and in fact his foreign policy views are a unique threat to that consensus.
I’m proud that since Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, our country has led as one of Europe’s most uncompromising, vocal antagonists to the Kremlin, pushing heavy sanctions and military aid.
And last year, the Labour Government signed the first-ever security and defence partnership with the EU. That must be the basis of the relationship that shapes the next decade of our continent. The UK and EU working side by side, with Nato allies, to defend ourselves from Russia, and back Ukraine until victory. A new era of security co-operation to protect us all.
Nick Thomas–Symonds is Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
“Mr Farage has consistently supported Russia, and tried to pretend that our interests could ever align with a dictator’s. From declaring in 2014 that “I think the European Union, frankly, does have blood on its hands in the Ukraine”, and that he didn’t want a “European foreign policy”, to suggesting in 2024 that Nato and the EU’s “eastward expansion” gave a reason for Vladimir Putin to “go to war”.
And that is why he was befriended by Krasnov, who always seeks out far right putlerists.
Farage appeared more times on RT than any other senior UK politician.
“It forces us to ask a fundamental question: Whose interests is he really serving? Allowing a world view sympathetic to Putin to hold the balance of power would be an unprecedented threat to national security.”
Well, a right hand man of his; Nathan Gill, is currently doing a ten year stretch for accepting Kremlin bribes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn8vnv3dk0vo
A major Farage donor; Aaron Banks, was exposed by journalist Carole Cadwalladr as having major ruZZia links. He sued her and lost.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61782578
Banks’ current wife is a known Kremlin skank; Ekaterina Paderina.
And of course Farage, like Krasnov, is a big fan of OrbanaZi, as well as putler.
Comment from :
J Finnemore
Mr. Farage’s failure to support Ukraine in its time of crisis has left Reform beyond the pale.
James Devine
Farage has a lot of good things to say, but his views on Russia are an absolute deal breaker when it comes to voting for him.
A. Wanker writes :
Nick Booth
Nobody wants an actual alliance with Russia, but we do want just normal relations in the long term. Britain does not need to get involved in the Ukraine war.
Stuart Taylor
Reply to Nick Booth
The Budapest Memorandum, to which the UK is a signatory, suggests otherwise.
GRAHAM REEVE
There’s a lot I like about Reform but I cannot– or will not– overlook their weak stance on Russia and softness to Putin. It’s a deal breaker for me like it is for many, many others… and that’s the rub isn’t it? They must KNOW how many votes it’s costing them yet they keep towing that line… why? Makes me think the Russian links are even worse than they appear…
Ione Botting
Finally a little bit of common sense from an article of the Telegraph rather than fomenting more divisions. We need to be closer to Eu for everything. For better European security on for the economy. It is time to re-join at the very least the common market as Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.
Bad Looking Rooster
Ok for the record (BBC Moscow interview 2024) Farage stated:
– EU and NATO provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine due to eastward expansion (the last of which, prior to Finland & Sweden joining after the invasion of Ukraine, was in 1997)
– he admired Putin as a “political operator” because of the extent of his control over Russia (ie murdering dictator)
You can make comments about his opponents all you like but don’t say he never said these things and take them into account when considering how he would “deal with” aforementioned murdering dictator.
The West is going west
Brexit means a strong Britain in the world – and that means supporting Ukraine against Russian fascist imperialism. Farage has forgotten/misunderstood what Brexit means.