U.K.’s Bridge to Trump? Nigel Farage, Who Pushed ‘Brexit,’ Posits Himself (original) (raw)

Europe|U.K.’s Bridge to Trump? Nigel Farage, Who Pushed ‘Brexit,’ Posits Himself

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/world/europe/uk-donald-trump-nigel-farage.html

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Nigel Farage, right, the acting leader of the U.K. Independence Party, arrived at Trump Tower in New York on Saturday.Credit...Yana Paskova/Getty Images

Nov. 14, 2016

LONDON — Britain has long been anxious about its “special relationship” with the United States, but after some choice remarks about Donald J. Trump by members of the governing Conservative Party during the presidential campaign, the relationship needs a bit of nurturing. And who better to tend to that, in his own mind at least, than Nigel Farage, the beer-loving commodities-trader-turned-populist-leader of the U.K. Independence Party.

Mr. Farage, known for his noisy role in promoting Britain’s exit from the European Union, was the first foreign politician to meet with President-elect Trump, three months after joining him on the campaign trail. On Monday, a photograph of the two men inside Trump Tower, all grins and thumbs up, dominated the front pages of newspapers in Britain.

As some in Mr. Farage’s party suggested him as the next ambassador to the United States, Prime Minister Theresa May’s office on Monday was quick to slap him down, saying that there would be no “third person” in her relationship with Mr. Trump.

Responding to the cool reception from the prime minister’s office, Mr. Farage told LBC Radio: “ It just goes to show they are not really interested in the country or the national interest, they are more concerned about petty party politics and trying to keep me out of everything.”

Mr. Farage’s unannounced one-man diplomacy is a nuisance for Mrs. May, who reportedly had no prior knowledge of his excursion to Manhattan. Her office played down the fact that she was only the 10th among world leaders to congratulate Mr. Trump after his election last week, with one official emphasizing that France was even further down the list.

Crispin Blunt, the chairman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said an intermediary role for Mr. Farage, a member of the European Parliament who has failed to win a seat in the British Parliament, was “completely implausible.” (Mr. Farage, who formally stepped down as the leader of UKIP after the June referendum to leave the bloc, is leading the party on a temporary basis.)

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