Raging Bulldog
Carlos Alba

For almost three decades, Nigel Farage held a unique position in British public life as a populist agitator, leading vocal minority movements that challenged political orthodoxy, but which kept him distant from any prospect of power. All of that changed with the 2016 Brexit vote, which transformed him from eccentric leader of a fringe party to a figure of genuine historical significance. Today he is one of Britain’s most recognisable public figures and, as head of the insurgent right wing party Reform UK, he is being spoken openly as a potential future Prime Minister.

The first European politician to meet with Donald Trump following his election as US President, he’s credited with being the driving force behind the Brexit project and he has positioned himself as the principal figurehead of a new ultra-conservative politics, mirroring the American, Alt Right movement. Under his leadership, Reform UK is now polling higher than both Conservative and Labour which, if replicated at the next general election, would break the two party stranglehold on government that has existed in Britain for more than a century.

With exclusive access to thousands of confidential, internal party documents, spanning a decade-and-a-half – including minutes of every national executive committee meeting during that time, as well as emails, letters, reports and other correspondence – Carlos Alba has written a uniquely forensic and often shocking account of Farage’s life and career, that challenges a history millions of people thought they knew. The ‘wealthy’ businessman turned anti-politician, who succeeded because of his authenticity and disdain for the trappings of office, is revealed to be an unscrupulous opportunist, whose single-minded pursuit of power, money and exposure was achieved at the expense of family, friends, colleagues and the truth.

Alba has gained an unprecedented insight into Farage’s most detailed thoughts and actions during his long political journey. Rigorous investigative journalism combined with candid, in-depth interviews with dozens of senior party figures – including all of UKIP’s previous leaders – have harvested a trove of previously unknown facts about Farage. The result is a fascinating and revealing narrative, often at odds with the subject’s own self-generated public persona.

Raging Bulldog includes page-after-page of bombshell revelations about Farage’s personal and professional ruthlessness, his flirtations with extreme, far-right politics, his obsessive secretiveness and his relentless pursuit of power.