Nigel Farage has questioned whether politicians should attend the Remembrance service at the Cenotaph – as he prepares to make his debut at the event on Sunday.
In a thinly veiled dig at Liz Truss, who is entitled to lay a wreath despite spending only 49 days in Downing Street, Mr Farage said ‘there are questions to be asked about whether politicians should be present at the Cenotaph, what with those 148 ex-prime ministers turning up’.
But the Reform UK leader added: ‘Of course, I am honoured to be there.’
He was speaking at a screening of a 40-minute film, We Will Remember Them, which follows Mr Farage on a visit to First World War battlefields in France.
It shows him becoming emotional as he reflects on the sacrifices made by the fallen and the importance of maintaining the traditions of Remembrance.
Mr Farage qualifies to appear at the Cenotaph under a 1984 protocol that dictates a Westminster political party must have at least six MPs to have the right to lay a wreath.
The Reform UK leader questioned whether politicians should attend the Remembrance service at the Cenotaph – as he prepared to make his debut at the event on Sunday
Farage appeared to take aim at former Tory PM Liz Truss (pictured attending the Cenotaph Remembrance parade alongside other prime ministers in 2024)
Reform has grown from five MPs in November last year after high-profile defections from the Conservatives.
His re-election as MP for Clacton in a by-election he triggered earlier this year to try to halt a growing media clamour over Reform UK’s finances means the party’s Commons contingent now stands at eight.
It has been a long-standing ambition of Mr Farage to join the Prime Minister, his predecessors and other leaders at the ceremony as a symbol of his breakthrough into the political mainstream.
He leads tours of First World War battlefields with friends, colleagues and politicians, whom he calls ‘Farage’s Foragers’.
