United Kingdom Reform Party leader Nigel Farage shrugged off spirited Democratic attacks during a testimony about free speech in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
Farage was the star witness in a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the effect of U.K. law on U.S. free speech rights, which came amid wider Republican scrutiny of the country. His testimony was quickly diverted to fending off spirited attacks from Democrats, however, especially House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin (MD). In his opening address, he blasted Farage as everything from a President Donald Trump sycophant, to an opponent of online child safety, to a bedfellow of tyrants and autocrats worldwide.
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“He should go and advance the positions he’s taking here in Congress today, in [the U.K.] Parliament, which is meeting today, if he’s serious about it. To the people of the U.K., who think this [Russian President Vladimir] Putin-loving, free speech imposter, and Trump’s sycophant will protect freedom in your country,” Raskin said.
“Come on over to America and see what Trump and [Make America Great Again] are doing to destroy our freedom: kidnap college students off the street, ban books from our libraries, militarize our police and unleash them against our communities, take over our universities, wreck our professional civil service, and turn the government into a money-making machine for Trump and his family. You might think twice before you let Mr. Farage make Britain great again,” he added.
Raskin also claimed that Trump was taking the United States to a place even worse than Putin, saying his policies more resembled Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Farage appeared visibly annoyed during the statement, but largely kept his cool in his response.
“Mr. Raskin, delightful testimony you gave me earlier on, with your speech. But hey, that’s fine! You can say what you like. I don’t care, because that’s what free speech is,” he said.
The Reform leader spent most of his opening statement rebutting Raskin’s plethora of allegations, including that he was opposing measures to protect children from accessing violent or pornographic content online, that Vice President JD Vance was “whitewashing” dictators, and that the U.K. was in a much better position, free-speech-wise, than the U.S. under Trump.
“It’s extraordinary that, you know, I come from the land of Magna Carta. I come from a land that gave us the mother of Parliament. So it doesn’t give me any great joy to be sitting in America and describing the really awful authoritarian situation that we have now sunk into,” he said.
Farage also took ample time to condemn the U.K. Metropolitan Police’s arrest of Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan at Heathrow Airport, a high-profile incident that even won the condemnation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“He’s not even a British citizen. He’s an Irish citizen. This could happen to any American man or woman that goes to Heathrow, but has said things online that the British government and British police don’t like,” he said.
“So I’ve come today as well to be a klaxon to say to you, don’t allow, piece by piece, this to happen here in America. And you’ll be doing us, and yourselves, and all freedom-loving people a favor,” Farage added. “At what point did we become North Korea?”
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who served as the top House Judiciary Democrat until stepping down in favor of Raskin this year, was dismissive of Farage, questioning why Republicans had invited a “fringe politician from the United Kingdom.”
“For Mr. Nadler’s benefit, it’s a very big fringe, and we’re doing rather well,” he later quipped.
Politico’s polling aggregate shows the Reform Party currently at an average of 31% in the polls, head and shoulders above Labour, its nearest competitor, which is polling at 20%.
Farage then got into an extended verbal sparring match with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), who pressed him on his relation to Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Johnson asked the U.K. party leader why he had attended Trump’s “coronation” in Milwaukee the previous year. Like Nadler, Johnson repeatedly referred to Farage as “fringe,” citing Reform’s low allocation of parliamentary seats in the last election.
“Oh, I’m a fringe, alright, don’t worry about that. Yes, absolutely,” Farage smirked.
Johnson repeatedly tried to get Farage to admit that he was “carrying water” for Musk and trying to ingratiate himself with the billionaire to raise enough money to become prime minister, despite the duo’s public falling out in January.
“From what I can see, Elon Musk is abusive about me virtually every single week!” Farage answered the first inquiry.
After a series of mutual interruptions, Farage explained that he and Musk had a major falling out, and the billionaire was “being spectacularly rude about me yesterday.”
“That’s life! We believe in free speech. We live with it,” he said.
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Farage has positioned himself as a longtime ally of conservatives in the U.S., a connection he’s been leaning into during the dispute over social media regulation between London and Washington. Farage argued that the measures were harmful to Britain’s free speech rights and jeopardized hugely valuable trade relations between them.
The debate was given a greater sense of urgency last week, when it was revealed in court filings that London had sought backdoor access to Apple’s entire iCloud service, potentially accessing U.S. citizens’ private information and passwords. The Trump administration has been working to push the U.K. to stand down in its demands.