Farage on Ukraine: Defiant Southampton Reform Candidate Defends Farage on "Tyrant" Putin

 

Alex Culley, Reform UK Candidate
for Southampton Test at 2024 General Election
Photo: used with permission Alex Culley

In defending Nigel Farage's comments on the Ukraine-Russia war in the BBC's Nick Robinson Leader interview, which we have summarised in another article, Southampton Itchen Reform candidate Alex Culley told us:

"the political establishment, and some in the media, are desperately casting around for stories to discredit Reform UK. This is simply because we are gaining serious support on the doorstep."

Attacking Reform's opponents, and branding Putin a tyrant, Mr Culley added:

"some of our opponents advocate, or have supported politicians or policies in the past which have advocated, for the serious weakening of our nation's defences by scrapping our nuclear deterrent (something which makes Putin think twice before attacking us). By contrast, we have pledged to increase defence spending to 3% of our GDP within 6 years to put tyrants like Putin on notice that the UK will not be bullied."

and cites Boris Johnson, George Robertson and Tony Blair as having similar views to Farage at various times about Ukraine or Putin.

• "(former Tory Prime Minister) Boris Johnson was quoted as saying that "EU foreign policy is to blame for inflaming tensions in Ukraine, rather than keeping peace" in 2016 (The i newspaper front page, as used in a prop by Nigel Farage on top of his campaign bus recently). Johnson at the time was accused of being a "Putin apologist";
• former Labour MP and NATO Secretary General George Robertson was recently quoted as saying: "He’s [Putin] bothered by the European Union. The whole Ukraine crisis started with the offer of an [EU] accession agreement to Ukraine [in 2014]"; and
• Tony Blair allegedly advocated for Putin to be given a seat on the "top table"."

 

Mr Culley also told us:

•     "Nigel has made it clear that Putin's invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible;
•     Nigel is not, and has never been, an apologist for Putin;
•     Reform UK supports Ukraine's resistance and the provision of aid by the USA and European nations;
•     Nigel's comments have been taken out of context and distorted by many in the press and the established parties;
•     in his speech, Nigel merely predicted what the consequences of the eastward expansion of NATO and the EU could be as, regardless of what we think, Russia was never likely to view this as being benign;
•     to conduct effective foreign policy, ignoring such geopolitical realities is both naive and dangerous;
•     Nigel has long advocated for British foreign policy to be conducted in the nation's interests, and is on record as having been against the interventions in Iraq and Libya which have had disastrous consequences for both the Middle East and Europe; and
•     Reform UK wants to see an end to this war as soon as possible. It has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives, spiked energy prices and inflation in the UK. This [has] contributed to the cost of living crisis. It is one of the main reasons Reform UK is advocating for strengthening our energy independence."

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