Nigel Farage will no longer write a regular column for the Telegraph, becoming the latest prominent rightwing figure to leave the title’s roster under its new ownership. The Reform UK leader wrote for the broadsheet as recently as last week, condemning the first budget of Andy Burnham’s premiership and pledging to “scrap benefits for foreigners, abolish net zero targets” and “slash foreign aid”. However, the Guardian understands that his contract to write regularly for the title is to end.
There appears to be a dispute over the reasons behind the termination of the contract, which paid Farage about £4,000 a month, according to the register of MPs’ financial interests. Sources suggested that Axel Springer, the Telegraph’s new German owner, has decided not to renew it. However, sources close to Farage said the Reform leader submitted his resignation on Friday, as he did not like the direction that the Telegraph was moving in.
The news comes after it emerged last week that Allison Pearson, a writer firmly on the right wing of the Telegraph’s regular columnists, was understood to be in negotiations about leaving the title. The end of Farage’s regular column will further fuel speculation over the political direction of the Telegraph under Axel Springer. It is hoping to use the title to make inroads into the US market as a centre-right, pro-free speech challenger to the Wall Street Journal.
It also comes after concern from some inside the Telegraph over its links to Reform UK. The title has traditionally been closely associated with the Conservative party. There was unease among some staff about Reform’s repeated use of the Telegraph for “spoiler” stories: a media tactic designed to pre-empt a problematic story by placing a more sympathetic version with a rival title.
Some insiders also disapproved of a piece about a journalist travelling to Britain on a small boat. It later emerged the journalist in question was a Reform member and activist. The paper also features columns by former Sunday Times political editor Isabel Oakeshott, the partner of Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, and an open supporter of many Reform UK policies.
Farage’s previous columns have urged Telegraph readers to “vote Reform and help me help you get our country back”, warning them it could be their “last chance”. Another defended Reform’s acceptance of two unprecedented £36m donations from the crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. They simply believe Britain needs change and that Reform UK is the only party prepared to deliver it.” The end of Farage’s regular column-writing comes as Axel Springer has set out plans for mass redundancies across the business, including the newsroom.
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