The sad, sad story of how Nigel Farage lost his friends in France

What’s the story?

Is it possible that Nigel Farage has not only lost a potential election for the hard-right in the UK, but France as well?

That's a very real possibility, with problems stacking up for Reform UK, and the party now causing trouble for it continental cousins, National Rally, who many are predicting will claim power in the 2027 French elections.

Reform, facing a police investigation into overseas funding, and a parliamentary inquiry into private donations to Farage, unveiled some good news at their 2026 conference.

It had signed a deal with National Rally, stating that if both win their next elections, the UK would round up migrants off the coast of France, drop them back on French beaches, and they would send them to their country of origin.

But the wheels have already come off that plan.

"It was the bit of the Reform conference where you thought, well, that's quite impressive," says Jon Sopel.

"They have an agreement where Farage will take back all the illegal immigrants who tried to cross the Channel in small boats, and the French will deal with them on their side of the border."

Nobody, it seems, explained that fully to the French.

Here's what happened

At the 2026 Reform party conference, Farage and Jordan Bardella appeared on stage holding a comedy-sized memorandum both had signed.

It stated that under a Reform government in the UK and a National Rally leadership in France, it would accept all migrants deported from British shores.

A Reform Britain would intercept migrants boats launched from the French coast, it read, and France would return these people to their home countries.

But the English version, signed by Farage, included a line claiming: "France will ordinarily accept these persons", which was missing from the one signed by Bardella.

There has been backlash in France to this potential deportation partnership, and claims Reform UK deliberately misled National Rally.

Reform claims all parts of the agreement, including the line absent in the French version, were agreed on by both sides.

Why is the French far right so angry with Nigel Farage?

There is one common thread between Farage and Bardella, and it's not how much trouble they are now in.

"Instead of Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak trying to 'get things done' after Brexit, it was Bardella and Farage agreeing they were both united in hating immigrants equally," Emily says.

An anti-migrant stance is one of the core values of National Rally, she adds, so the last thing they, or their supporters, want is more migrants on their shores.

"They're saying France doesn't want to be a doormat, and so this has actually created two schisms."

One, between Farage and Bardella, the other between Bardella and Marine Le Pen, the French politician's mentor.

When asked recently by journalists for her opinion on the Reform agreement, she angrily told reporters she would comment when she was ready – and in that moment, she was not ready.

"Marine Le Pen is furious that he's just signed this off," Emily adds.

"She doesn't know what the hell he's doing."

How big of a mess has Nigel Farage made?

Well, it's not looking great right now.

Reform, which has seen a huge slump in the polls during 2026, is looking shakier every week. Headlines focus on dodgy dealings behind the scenes, much to Farage's annoyance, and no one was that excited about the prospective deal with France anyway.

"Farage, I think, on Friday was really pissed off that this deal wasn't getting the attention it might have done," Jon says.

"National Rally now wants to put as much distance as it can between this 'memorandum of understanding', even though Farage thought it was the best thing since sliced bread last week."

Now people are paying attention, but not for any of the reasons Reform might have wanted.

"The week has been dominated by investigations into Reform on one side, and on the other, his bestie Bardella is now in the shit," Maitlis says.

"Now, many of the other presidential candidates in France are now using this to attack Front National, these guys voters thought were going to be really tough on immigrants, to say they're not tough, they're just going to do Farage's work for him."

It's unlikely Farage will be holidaying on the French Riviera any time soon, that's for sure.

"Technically he could have lost, not just the UK election on this, but the French election for the far right too," Maitlis adds.

"That's quite a week's work."

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