How Nigel Farage lost the support of the UK’s right-wing media

What’s the story?

For much of his career, certainly as the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage has enjoyed the support of the UK’s right leaning media.

But the gift of £5 million from a crypto billionaire seems to have changed all that.

Now, the newspapers and news outlets that were once so supportive of Farage, and his politics, are digging into his finances and affairs with as much scrutiny as those who have always sought to challenge his divisive, hard-right stance.

He recently raged against The Times newspaper for, what he claimed, was a photo published which revealed where his family live and said its reporters “hounded” his daughter. The newspaper strongly denies this.

“What's interesting is The Times, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph, even the Express to some extent, the Daily Mail, and where they're carrying those stories, often on the front page, and the tone in which they're talking about it,” says Lewis Goodall.

“I think if this had happened six or nine months ago, they would have handled it in a somewhat different way.”

“Stories appear in the media, and the papers that they're in do tell us something about the shifting political sands.”

The story of Farage’s five million originally appeared in The Guardian, but shortly after that, similar reports appeared on the front-page of The Sunday Times.

The press shifted – and so did the public

The change in approach from the UK’s right-wing media comes at the same time as change has been seen in how Farage has been polling in the UK.

Earlier in 2026, the lead in public opinion towards Farage was astonishing – far ahead of Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, Ed Davey and Zack Polanski.

Now, leaders of the ‘traditional’ British parties are perceived far more favourably than the populist upstarts, although the surging popularity of Andy Burnham will be greatly influenced by his very recent arrival on the scene.

“Starmer's personal approval rating was way into negative territory,” says Lewis.

“At one point he was about as popular as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, according to the polling.”

Jon Sopel says the narrative that has been spun since the 2024 general election is that two-party politics was over in the UK. Now, it seems like that might not be the case.

But is there a difference between liking the leader, and supporting what they stand for?

“Let's imagine for a moment that Burnham and Badenoch do manage to maintain their personal popularity at least for a while, and there's reasonable grounds to believe that could be the case,” Lewis says.

“It is possible that you might end up having two parties being led by quite popular political figures, but their respective brands are still very poor.”

This, he adds, seems likely to be influenced by the change in tone that seems to have swept parts of the press.

“It feels to me that the Rupert Murdochs of the world are much more interested in the idea of a Conservative reification than they were 12 months ago, which is affecting how they attack these stories and how Farage is coming across,” he says.

“The conservative press were really toying with Farage and flirting with the idea of backing him, giving him really favourable coverage.

Over the last three months, the wider right-wing press have started to go for coverage and go for stories, not least around his finances, which have not been favourable to him, and it's had an impact.”

Is Nigel Farage in the wrong job?

It has, until recently, been such smooth sailing for Nigel Farage, but despite years of experience in the political arena (UKIP, the Brexit Party and as an MEP), The News Agents say his response to this first wave of robust, and media-wide criticism, has been terrible.

In a recent round of media interviews, he reacted angrily to questions about his finances, and despite claims the £5m gift was for security, said he was within his rights to spend on cars if he so chose.

“Nigel Farage is a brilliant communicator, but has been absolutely woeful in seeking to explain where that money came from,” says Jon, who adds that the change in support is a genuine shift, rather than personal.

“I think it's the newspapers responding to events rather than just the kind of abstract decision to give Farage a bit of a kicking.”

Lewis says that Farage’s poor response to scrutiny suggests he may not have been ready to take Reform UK to the big leagues.

“For a guy who has such political flair and such political acuity- and says he wants to be prime minister - he is unbelievably thin-skinned” he says.

“He is completely pissed off that anybody might dare to ask him a question.

“You're in the wrong job pal, if you want to be prime minister. You don't like questions about your personal life? Tough luck.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.