He Walked Straight Into This Brutal Media Trap

This week Nigel Farage sat down with Jeremy Kyle, about as sympathetic as an interviewer he will ever face, and he got asked one question that matters right now.

Some journalists, quite a few, are saying that reform in its entirety, certain members of reform have used this tragedy to shut down the debate about the donation you touched upon from Christopher Harbourn.They repeat texts and tweets and stuff like that.How would you answer that to your critics in the media who say, no, no, this has fallen perfect.I mean, I have my opinion.I'll keep quiet.This has fallen perfectly.

And absolutely, reform are going to use this to deflect.

Anne Whitacombe was murdered.Murdered.the most high -profile murder in Britain for many, many decades.

Okay, okay, I'm going to stop it right there because the rest of the answer deserves a proper introduction.24 hours before Farage opened his mouth, a Daily Mail con list predicted what was about to come out of it as a sort of public test.And what Farage says next, from this exact frame, passes that test so completely, it almost imitates art.First, the prediction.then the sentence, and then you can judge the gap between them yourself.First the facts, because they matter more than the noise around them.

Ann Widdicombe was found dead at her home in Devon last Thursday.Devon and Cornwall police initially said there was nothing to suggest her death was politically motivated, and asked people not to speculate.On Monday, counter -terrorism police took over the investigation after new evidence came to light, The subject was re -arrested under terrorism laws, and the head of counter -terrorism police called it a targeted attack.The motive, as of the day that I'm recording this, has not been established.They're investigating whether other reformed figures were targets, and they've confirmed nothing either way.And I suppose we've got to give credit where it's due.

credit is due Farage said from the start this looked premeditated he took abuse for saying it and you know to be fair he was right the early police statements were a mess reforms criticism of them yeah probably fair and I would be saying exactly that whichever party the victim belonged to that's the concession So now let's move on to the experiment.On Monday the 13th, Dan Hodges, a Mail on Sunday columnist, and a man nobody has ever confused with being called a lefty, posted this.I've been saying Reform are attempting to deflect from scrutiny of Nigel Farage, and they've been hysterically denying it.So let's test.I predict they will try and link today's statement about anti -terror police now leading the investigation with Farage's 5 million donation.A fallible prediction about your opponent's behaviour is a dangerous thing to publish, because if they simply don't do the thing, you look ridiculous.

Forever.All reform had to do was nothing.Here's what happened instead.Aaron Banks, Farage's close friend and longtime backer, tweeted that Farage was quite right to take the £5m gift to secure him and his family for life, adding, We have seen during the last few days no one is safe.The Youssef Reforms Home Affairs spokesman declared that journalists and MPs who attacked Farage for accepting a gift to fund security should hang their heads in shame.Robert Jenrick accused the government of playing politics with Farage's life.

Murder investigation wielded to donation story on schedule in writing.Which brings us back to that frozen frame.Remember what Kyle actually asked him.How do you answer critics who say reform are using this tragedy to shut down the donation debate?So here's the rest of that answer.

We'll find out as time goes on she was murdered because he supported the reform agenda Okay, so we'll just stop there for a second now.

That's status fact the day after police leading the investigationsaid the motive is still being established and they won't say whether the reform figures are targeted at all.He may turn out to be right.Nobody currently knows, including him.And asserting a motive while a man sits in custody uncharged is precisely the behavior reform spent the weekend attacking the police for.Just pointing the other way.

But the second half of the answer is the reveal.

and if you wish to continue to argue against me, well, I'm sorry, that's the end of the debate.Her murder proves the great danger that I'm in, and other senior reform politicians.

" He was asked whether reform used the death to close down questions about the money, and his answer used the death to close down questions about the money.Hodges never had to argue his case, Farage just delivered to him, on camera, more or less word for word.And here's my favourite bit of scheduling.On the same channel, on the same news cycle, Kyle read Hodges' prediction out loud to Richard Tice and asked him to respond.

I predict that they will link to today's statement about anti -terror police now leading the investigation with Farage's five million donation.How do you respond to that Richard?It's a blatant lie, we haven't done that at all.

The deputy leader says the party hasn't done it at all.Whilst the leader does it into a nearby microphone, the spokesman puts it in writing and the donor class tweets it before breakfast.If this is reform not linking the murder to the money, I'd genuinely like to see what linking does actually look like.Now the money itself, because the whole evidence of this rests on answering a question nobody's actually asked.Listen to how Farage defends the five million, unprompted.

I've broken no law.I've broken no tax law.I haven't misused a penny of public money.I've claimed zero personal expenses in the first two years.

No law broken, no tax law broken, no public money misused, no expenses claimed.Four shieldsraised against four accusations that just don't exist.Because the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner isn't examining any of that.The investigation into whether he followed the disclosure rules which require MPs to register financial interest within 28 days.The one word missing for Raj's entire answer is declared.

And it happens to be the only word the Commissioner cares about.And the security justification just makes it worse for him, not better.If the 5 million was given because Farage is a high -profile MP facing genuine threats, then it's a benefit connected to his role in public life.Which is exactly the category of gift the register expects to capture.Every time reform explain the purpose, they're strengthening the case that it needed declaring.Aaron Banks's defence is an argument for a bigger security budget.

It has nothing to do with whatsoever, to say, of a late declaration form.Even Jeremy Kyle knows this.Mid -interview, mid -defence, he says it out loud.

I've heard all the arguments, I've heard that you should have declared it.That's, to me, a separate issue.

I mean, this is reform's friendliest broadcaster.Jeremy Kyle is hardcore reform supporting cheerleader, and he's drawing the line the party leader won't.He joins Camilla Tomerley and Jacobs Reid -Mogg, who spent last week's Telegraph podcast trying to hand Richard Tice the same separation, and watching him refuse it.When people are trying to help you keep pointing out that your two stories don't belong in the same sentence, at some point the establishment stops being a plausible explanation.

There's another debate to be had about scrutiny into donations to Nigel Farage worth £5 million, your tax affairs, legitimate reportage, your legitimate right of reply to such stories.Isn't that a separate issue?here?

No, it's all part of a politically motivated smear campaign which is being coordinated by parts of the establishment One more thing, because it's clean.

Youssef claimed reform were receiving no state protection whatsoever, a claim both the Home Secretary and the Speaker rejected in the Commons.But the best rebuttal came from Farage himself.In the same Kyle interview, he described a large security team that it used to have, a 75 % cut he considered inaccurate, and the package he turned down, a bodyguard, a car, and a driver.The same provision offered to Kemi Badenot.I mean, you could seriously argue that package doesn't match the threat.The Times reports Reform's own security team has logged over 1 ,500 threats against Farage since February, 597 of them death threats.

The party's own count, but nobody should face a fraction of that.And the Times printing where his daughter lives, you could say it's indefensible.Which is what makes the word choice so telling.Inadequate was available.Downgraded was available.But Yusuf went with no protection whatsoever, and Hodges said the quiet part on air.

He lied, and there's a reason that he lied.

The reason Zia Yousaf lied is, as I said, is because he is trying to merge the issue of Anne Widdicombe's death with Nigel Farage's security and the debate about the £5 million.

Which brings us to Isabel Oakeshott, and the argument sitting underneath all of this.Because on the same show, she went after Hodges by name.

But I think that Dan has been largely responsible for whipping this up over the weekend.Whipping up attacks, verbal attacks, on reform MPs and how they responded to the death of a colleague.That impugning of motivation,that putting the worst possible complexion on the responses and contributions of our politicians is really, really unhealthy.

Impugning of motives.Hold on to that phrase because impugning politicians' motives is the entire trade.His, hers, and mine.And Reform's whole brand is built on saying what nobody else will.Hodges answered her with a story about the last time this exact logic got deployed.After he questioned Keir Starmer's record at the CPS over Jimmy Savile, Starmer was surrounded by a mob outside Parliament screaming about Savile and had to be bundled away by police.

And at that time, a lot of people said that my criticism of Keir Starmer, my scrutiny of Keir Starmer, had led directly to him being surrounded and that threat to his personal safety.

The Right called that legitimate scrutiny at the time, and the Right said that was correct.Last week on the Telegraph's podcast, Richard Tice was narrowing who counts as a real journalist.This week, the argument has moved on to what real journalists should be allowed to ask.Follow that line to its end, and the party currently leads in the polls that gets to reclassify questions about its leader's 5 million as a public safety hazard.The threats to Farage are real.The murder of Ann Widdicombe is a genuine horror, and the counter -terror investigation should go wherever the evidence leads.

I mean, I'll be covering every development of this and the by -election right through into August the 6th, so subscribe if you want to follow that properly.But however this ends, whatever the investigation finds, the Standards Commissioner's question will still be sitting there, four words long, untouched by any of this.Why wasn't it declared?And if you're wondering how Isabel Oakeshott's scrutiny of dangerous argument holds up under a bit of scrutiny itself, well, this is the journalist who leaked 100 ,000of Matt Hancock's private messages with, in her own words, no apology whatsoever, and she spent this week calling leaks about reforms finances a state of conspiracy.Three interviews and not one straight answer on Farage's 5 million.

That takedown is in the video that's on screen now.Thanks for watching, don't forget to hit that like button, and I'll see you next time.Bye!