New Clacton MP Nigel Farage defended his decision to travel to America to support Donald Trump.
As MPs were debating the King’s Speech, the Reform UK leader was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the Republican National Convention is taking place.
He said he had had a “busy day” with the King’s Speech, which was on Wednesday, and that he was now in America.
“I had to come,” he told the News Agents podcast.
“Trump, I’ve been friendly with him for all these years and he has just survived an assassination attempt.
“I thought I would come and say ‘hello’.”
What's the new MP for Clacton doing out here in Milwaukee? 🇺🇸@maitlis asks @Nigel_Farage... @GlobalPlayer pic.twitter.com/bpcDNwanfo
— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) July 18, 2024
He added that some people “around” Trump thought it was the “right thing that I came”.
Pressed on whether he was now giving all his time to Clacton as the new MP, he stressed: “I’m allowed to come to America on a trip like this, particularly in these circumstances.”
Asked whether he was in the US, just two weeks after being elected to Parliament, because it was more exciting than being the MP for Clacton, he added: “No, I’m just here for a couple of days.
“I will be back at the weekend.”
Mr Farage stormed to victory at the July 4 general election in Clacton, gaining 21,225 votes, or 46.2 of the vote share, compared to Conservative Giles Watling in second place getting 12,820 votes, or 27.9 per cent.
But it is yet to be seen how much time Mr Farage will devote to his constituency work.
Party leaders often have to spend more time on their work in Parliament but still try to diligently represent their constituents.
At the convention, Trump’s running mate JD Vance took centre stage on Wednesday.
He shared his story of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent.
He later joined the US marines, graduated from Yale Law School, and went on to the highest levels of US politics - an embodiment of an American dream he said is now in short supply.
“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” he said.
Speaking to a packed arena at the RNC, he cast himself as a fighter for a forgotten working class, making a direct appeal to the Rust Belt voters who helped drive Mr Trump’s surprise 2016 victory and voicing their anger and frustration.
“In small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” he said.
“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this,” he said.
“I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”
The 39-year-old Ohio senator and former arch critic of Trump is a relative political unknown, having served in the Senate for less than two years.
