Nigel Farage has praised the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate for being an “important voice” for the “emasculated” and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school” in online interviews that appear to be aimed at young men over the past year. The Reform UK leader spoke in favour of Tate for defending “male culture” in a Strike It Big podcast that aired in February, while acknowledging that the influencer had gone “over the top” and elsewhere that he had said some “pretty horrible” things. Since December 2022, Tate has been facing charges in Romania of human trafficking, rape, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, which he denies. Many politicians and teachers have spoken out against Tate’s influence on young boys in the UK, after the self-proclaimed misogynist said women belonged in the home and were a man’s property. “There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist,” Tate said in one video. In other clips reported by the Observer, the British-American kickboxer – who poses with fast cars and guns, and portrays himself as a cigar-smoking playboy – talks about hitting and choking women, trashing their belongings and stopping them from going out. He has now been banned from YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Farage’s interviews on the podcasts demonstrate how he has been attempting to appeal to younger audiences on a series of controversialist podcasts and online shows aimed at younger men. He has ranged from arguing against diversity quotas for BAME people, saying “the idea we should give people jobs according to how suntanned they are, the colour of their skin” was nonsense, to suggesting that some people on benefits are “too fat … too stupid, too lazy” to work. In his Strike It Big podcast appearance in February, Farage said Tate had been “an important voice” for men, who were being told that male culture should be looked down on. “Tate was a very important voice for an emasculated … you three guys, you are all 25, you are all kind of being told you can’t be blokes, you can’t do laddish, fun, bloke things … That’s almost what you’re being told. That masculinity is something we should look down upon, something we should frown upon. It’s like the men are becoming feminine and the women are becoming masculine and it’s a bit difficult to tell these days who’s what. “And Tate fed into that by saying, ‘Hang on, what’s wrong with being a bloke? What’s wrong in male culture? What’s wrong in male humour?’ He fed into those things. His was a campaign of raising awareness, his was a campaign of giving people perhaps a bit of confidence at school or whatever it was to speak up …” He acknowledged that Tate “maybe took that alter-ego of masculinity too far in his relationships with women” and that some of things he had said and posted “were over the top”. But he said the “jury is out” on investigations into the influencer. Farage was pictured with Tate in 2019, before the legal case in Romania.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Farage said: “The banking sector, now full of idiots, people are promoted not because of ability, but ethnicity or gender … The white male – you lot – are going to feel the world’s against you. Andrew Tate tapped into that. You’re going to feel the world’s against you, you’re going to feel resentful and angry … These are massive cultural battles.” In another podcast from August last year, the Disruptors show hosted by Rob Moore, Farage was asked whether he would rather listen to Andrew Tate or Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychology professor and culture warrior. “I think Jordan Peterson because I think he is a lot more rounded. I think Andrew Tate is a fascinating figure. I think his speaking to men, who because of the woke agenda were told they couldn’t be male in any way at all, was an important thing. But I feel some of his comments were pretty horrible. Jordan has a much more coherent intellectualism to what he does.” Asked about his podcast appearances, including his comments on Tate, Farage said: “There’s an awakening in a younger generation who have had enough of being dictated to, have had enough of being lectured to. They’re seeing through the rubbish they’re getting taught in schools and universities. If no other politician is willing to reach out to this group of people, then I will.” Alex Davies-Jones, a Labour candidate and shadow minister for domestic violence, said Tate was a “dangerous misogynist who is facing multiple charges of human trafficking and sexual offences – and it is inexplicable that a politician would praise him”. Davies-Jones, who has previously faced death and rape threats for criticising Tate’s “brainwashing” of young boys, added: “Tate is not a positive role model for young boys. He will drag them down a horrific rabbit-hole of objectifying and abusing women. It is never just banter – it is part of a toxic culture that sadly often leads to violence.” On an episode of the Your Round podcast, which aired earlier this month, Farage hit out at the idea of hiring policies that take diversity into account, appearing to describe people of colour as being “suntanned”. “The race thing is even worse. The idea we should give people jobs according to how suntanned they are, the colour of their skin … the whole thing is nonsense. A guy who’s my producer at GB News is half Indian. I’m darker than he is! It’s nonsense.” He later added: “Now we’re saying this person gets this job because they’re black, or they’re gay.” In an appearance on the “free speech” Triggernometry podcast, which has almost 1 million subscribers, in February 2023, Farage claimed that “welfarism, I’m afraid, is making millions of people lazy”. “‘I’m too fat, I’m too stupid, I’m too lazy, I don’t get out of bed in the morning. I smoke drugs, give me money’ … That’s what we’re saying. ‘I don’t need to work, the state will provide for me’ … We cannot afford it,” he said. Other rightwing views aired on the podcast included Farage saying he wished that the former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss had “held her nerve” and stuck to her budget as “a lot of it was good thinking” – although he said it was too much, too fast. He also claimed that Jeremy Hunt taking over as chancellor after the budget triggered a negative market reaction was part of a “globalist coup”. In a further interview with a show called Nomad Capitalist in April 2024, Farage had huge praise for Javier Milei, the far-right libertarian Argentine president famous for posing with a chainsaw, saying he had been bringing in “Thatcherism on steroids – this is incredible, cutting and slashing public expenditure, doing all the things he’s done”, adding: “That’s leadership … he is amazing.” When asked to list the best leaders in the western world, Farage named Hungary’s rightwing leader, Viktor Orbán, a “strong leader”, and his “friend” Donald Trump, the US presidential candidate. Previously, in 2016 on Fox News, Farage praised Vladmir Putin, the Russian president, who he said for “all his faults” was a “strong leader who believes in his own nation”. Farage’s interview comments February 2023 “‘I’m too fat, I’m too stupid, I’m too lazy, I don’t get out of bed in the morning. I smoke drugs, give me money’ … That’s what we’re saying. ‘I don’t need to work, the state will provide for me’ … We cannot afford it. “I welcomed much of [Liz Truss’s] budget. I think if there is a criticism, they tried to do too much, too quickly, without prior explanation … What happened here is the backbenches wobbled really quite quickly because a lot of Conservative backbenchers are basically globalists and listened to those big noises from the multinationals and the IMF. As soon as she sacked Kwarteng, it was all over … I would much have preferred her to hold her nerve, keep making those arguments and see if the party dared get rid of them.” August 2023 “I think Andrew Tate is a fascinating figure. I think his speaking to men, who because of the woke agenda were told they couldn’t be male in any way at all, was an important thing. But I feel some of his comments were pretty horrible.” February 2024 “Tate was a very important voice for an emasculated … You three guys, you are all 25, you are all kind of being told you can’t be blokes, you can’t do laddish, fun, bloke things … That’s almost what you’re being told. That masculinity is something we should look down upon, something we should frown upon. It’s like the men are becoming feminine and the women are becoming masculine and it’s a bit difficult to tell these days who’s what.” April 2024 Javier Milei is “Thatcherism on steroids – this is incredible, cutting and slashing public expenditure, doing all the things he’s done … That’s leadership … He is amazing.” June 2024 “The race thing is even worse. The idea we should give people jobs according to how suntanned they are, the colour of their skin … the whole thing is nonsense. A guy who’s my producer at GB News is half Indian. I’m darker than he is! It’s nonsense.”