Farage Dismisses Female Reporter's Serious Questions With Patronising Putdown

The Reform leader told the FT journalist to just write some "silly story".

Political Correspondent

Nigel Farage tried to belittle a female journalist during his press conference on Tuesday, instructing her to “write some silly story”.

After announcing the briefs for his spokespeople, the Reform UK took questions from more than two dozen reporters in the room.

The Financial Times’ Anna Gross asked two questions, both of which seemed to rile the MP for Clacton.

She asked about Reform Home Office spokesperson Zia Yusuf’s plans to introduce mass deportations with a US-style ICE force in the UK, and then began a second question by pointing out education spokesperson Suella Braverman went to a school which charges £17,000 a year.

But Farage cut her off to mock the question, saying: “Oh dear, what a terrible human being she must be!”

Gross said, “Not at all” – but pointed out Richard Tice, Yusuf, Robert Jenrick and Farage also went to expensive private schools.

She asked how Reform would respond to voters who fear how committed they are to state education.

Farage said: “I love the FT. It’s fantastic. The day after the big Mandelson story broke, your front story was about a Reform council in Kent, so we’ll leave it at that.”

Actually, the FT has been credited as one of the primary driving forces looking into ex-ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson’s friendship with the dead convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mandelson once described it as an “FT obsession”.

But Farage pressed on: “We’ll leave it there. There’s no point, just write some silly story tomorrow and have fun with it, we won’t bother to read it. ”

The Reform supporters laughed and applauded at that.

That’s not the first time Farage has hit out at a female journalist.

Farage previously accused Camilla Tominey, from The Telegraph, of playing a “silly little game” back in November when she asked about the make-up of his top team.

She asked Farage: “You say you expect an election in 2027. The fact that Zia Yusuf is here – does that mean he is your preferred candidate for chancellor, not Richard Tice?”

Farage told the reporter that was a good try and it is no wonder she is well-paid, adding: “I’m just not playing your silly little game.”

He also called Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain “love” in an interview last October.

When Farage said any Russian airspaces being flown into Nato airspaces should be shot down, she asks if he is concerned that could “inflame tensions”.

He replied: “Listen love, you’re trying ever so hard. Listen love, you’re trying ever so hard.”

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