Farage strikes Davos in globalism and nationalism showdown

Key topics:Farage attends Davos, signaling end of globalism and rise of nationalism.Faces challenge balancing Trump ties with UK voter skepticism.Seeks to show Reform UK as credible, beyond insurgent outsider image..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Lucy White.With everyone from Mark Carney down declaring the death of the rules-based international order, Nigel Farage wasn’t going to pass up a spot at the wake. The populist leader of Reform UK — which has been ahead in UK polls for almost a year — is breaking with the habit of a lifetime by attending the World Economic Forum at Davos, an event he’s previously lambasted as a talking shop for the cosmopolitan elite. He’s going to use his appearances to tell business leaders and politicians that the age of globalism is over, and national self-interest is taking its place. .That might not have been what the WEF hoped for when it said its 56th annual meeting would “enable an open exchange of ideas and perspectives.” But with Farage’s friend Donald Trump about to show up in the Swiss mountains, that’s what they’re poised to get. .Read more:.Nigel Farage, Reform UK are still a long way from peaking: Adrian Wooldridge.A Davos appearance is risky for 61-year-old Farage. If he wants to turn a polling lead into an election victory, he needs to win over the section of the electorate not convinced by his pugnacious style or isolationist message. Still less by his closeness to the US president, who’s disliked by a majority in the UK.Many business leaders are wary of Reform’s hazy fiscal policies and the plans they’ve espoused for Trump-style mass deportations. The forum gives Farage a chance to show critics he can work with allies on a world stage without poking at geopolitical tensions. That temptation might be too much for him. After all, he made his name as an antagonist of the European Union and claims responsibility for the Brexit vote which took the UK out. And the timing is awkward, when driving some of those tensions is a threat from the US president to slap tariffs on the UK and other European nations if they don’t pave the way for his country to buy Greenland. .Farage will be toeing a fine line as he attempts to stake out some distance from a president who’s increasingly unpopular in Europe, while promoting a distinctly Trumpian message himself. Especially when it was an invitation from the administration to speak at Davos’s US House that prompted Farage to attend the conference on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. After once describing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “a full-on globalist, hanging out with his mates at the WEF,” Farage’s trip to the Swiss Alps is meant to send a punchy signal to the elite. As one person close to him put it: this is the next prime minister of the UK, and this is their chance to engage with him.As much as Farage’s inner circle would like that to be true, a future premiership is hardly a done deal. The next UK election doesn’t have to be held until 2029, and although some pollsters are showing the party just able to clinch a majority on current levels of support, its strategists would like a more comfortable lead.Its margin has even slipped in recent days, as the shine of insurgency starts to fade. The party has welcomed several high-profile defections from the main opposition Conservatives, which bolsters its claims to own the right-of-center while at the same time linking it to figures from a government that suffered a humiliating election defeat 18 months ago. .Farage must now cement his transition from maverick political outsider to potential leader. Yet attendees who’ve spoken to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity weren’t convinced by his cameo. One senior UK banker said they were definitely not planning to meet him, adding that UK House and the Treasury’s delegation would still be their calling point for any UK topics.Farage’s visit has also raised eyebrows among the UK government officials who’ve shown up. A person close to one minister described his appearance as intriguing, while, in an interview at Bloomberg House, Chancellor Rachel Reeves underlined the former commodities trader’s barbs at Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey. “Businesses should, without getting worried, think about the consequences of that and not just sit on the sidelines,” she said. A Reform UK spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. .Farage plans to meet the US delegation during the two days he’s in Davos, according to a person familiar with his agenda. It’s shaping up to be delicate meeting. On Monday, Farage issued a statement calling Trump’s latest tariff “wrong, it’s bad, it would be very, very hurtful to us.”His next words revealed the balance he’s trying to strike: “I’ve always been a supporter of the President since way before he got elected for the first time. But I will be having some words with the American administration in Davos on Wednesday on this issue.”There were already signs, even before the latest tariff threats, that Farage has recognized what some academics have dubbed the “Trump effect” — that some politicians who have been openly critical of the current US administration have gone on to win elections. .Read more:.RW Johnson: Farage’s first casualty is the British party system.In the UK, 81% of people have an unfavorable attitude toward the president, according to the latest YouGov polling, and the likes of Carney in Canada, Anthony Albanese in Australia, and Nicusor Dan in Romania all won elections while at loggerheads with Trump.Farage recently turned down an invitation to golf with the president at Mar-a-Lago, a person familiar with the matter said. It may not have been expedient to show up at the seat of Trump’s personal power ahead of local elections in which Farage hopes to give the government a bloody nose. .© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Farage strikes Davos in globalism and nationalism showdown

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