{"text":[[{"start":7.94,"text":"Shortly before the US midterm elections, Nigel Farage staked out a brave position."}],[{"start":13.84,"text":"“I don’t go with that consensus that Trump is going to get smashed,” the veteran Brexit campaigner said on his GB News show."}],[{"start":21.32,"text":"“We’re in for a big surprise tonight.”"}],[{"start":23.72,"text":"Hours later, the Reform UK leader found a rather different surprise — one of the Republican Party’s most astonishing recent defeats."}],[{"start":32.08,"text":"His friendship with Donald Trump has long been seen by his political opponents as a liability. But US voters’ verdict may accentuate doubts about whether Reform is part of a global rightwing juggernaut."}],[{"start":44.96,"text":"Farage has come under attack from rivals highlighting his early support for the Iran war, which even the US president has conceded contributed to the Republican Party’s defeat after the conflict sent fuel prices soaring."}],[{"start":58.32,"text":"Louise Haigh, Labour’s first secretary of state, said this week that both Reform and the Conservatives, who also supported the war, “should consider very carefully their judgment”."}],[{"start":69.28,"text":"Meanwhile Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe, who is looking to outflank Farage to the right, told the FT: “Farage backed the bombing on day one . . . I say vote Reform, get war.”"}],[{"start":80.84,"text":"Farage has so far responded to the midterms with a mixture of contrition and bullish attack. He has downplayed his previous support for the Iran war."}],[{"start":89.28,"text":"“I thought we should support the Americans on day one . . . But I’ve never supported endless war,” he said on Thursday."}],[{"start":95.16,"text":"He added that there was “no question” the war had been a mistake."}],[{"start":98.8,"text":"Asked what the key lesson of the midterms was for Reform, Farage said: “Keep your promises.”"}],[{"start":106.2,"text":"“He [Trump] broke a promise: that was no more foreign wars.”"}],[{"start":108.32,"text":"One adviser to Farage said the Reform leader and Trump still spoke regularly."}],[{"start":112.68,"text":"“I never ever thought that my relationship with Trump would politically help me in the UK,” Farage said on Thursday, although he argued that their closeness might be good for building US-UK ties. “Half the [Trump] cabinet are friends.”"}],[{"start":127.28,"text":"Farage may take another lesson from the midterm results."}],[{"start":130.6,"text":"His Tuesday prediction that Republicans would outperform was based partly on their greater financial firepower."}],[{"start":137.08,"text":"“Elon Musk hasn’t chucked in $450mn of his own money just for fun,” he said."}],[{"start":143.24,"text":"Farage has spent the past two months crowing about two record-breaking donations of £36mn pledged to Reform by crypto-billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, by far the biggest donations in British political history."}],[{"start":157.88,"text":"Yet it is unclear whether such spending power will revive Reform UK, which has slipped to third place in opinion polls, behind Labour and the Conservatives."}],[{"start":167.04,"text":"Farage has contested the polls, but he also said on Thursday: “Money on its own doesn’t do it. Messages, the people you present, all of those things matter.”"}],[{"start":176.24,"text":"Senior Reform figures said other lessons from the US were already being taken on board."}],[{"start":181,"text":"“Clearly Trump took his eye off the ball,” one senior Reform official said."}],[{"start":185.2,"text":"“The lesson of the US midterms is you ignore cost of living at your peril, and we’re going to double down on our messaging in the coming weeks.”"}],[{"start":194.04,"text":"Reform officials believe that while Andy Burnham has enjoyed a significant bounce since becoming prime minister in July, a weak economy still presents them with an opening."}],[{"start":203.44,"text":"They highlight that the Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, forecasts that real household disposable incomes will fall over the next two years and argue that Burnham will face the brunt of voters’ anger."}],[{"start":215.84,"text":"“The average voter knows the Iran war is outside of Reform’s control and that the government isn’t doing enough,” one party official said."}],[{"start":223.56,"text":"Reform voters may not be overly concerned."}],[{"start":226.28,"text":"Rob Ford, a professor of politics at Manchester University, said there would be a “few red faces” because of Farage’s closeness to Trump, but that Reform voters were “typically low engagement” on British politics, “let alone the US”."}],[{"start":239.08,"text":"“Trump was toxic in the UK even before the midterms,” Ford said. “Americans are just catching up.”"}],[{"start":246.16,"text":"Reform’s biggest hope may be that Trump becomes less prominent by the time of the next UK election, due by 2029."}],[{"start":253.76,"text":"On Thursday, Farage was talking about his friend’s political career almost in the past tense. “This was his last big election,” he said. “And they all say that all political careers end in failure.”"}],[{"start":271.72,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793952693_7014.mp3"}