“Putin-Loving Imposter”: Raskin Finally Calls Farage What He Is

What Was Meant to be Another Farage Victory Lap Turned Into a Demolition of His Record, His Hypocrisy, and His Loyalties.

I went to sleep last night a very satisfied Bear.

Why, you may ask?

Because, the biggest charlatan in Westminster (and that is really saying something), finally had his arse handed to him. In what I'm sure Nigel Farage thought would be yet another coup, his day yesterday was spent in US Congress. He took time away from parliament (again) to have a bit of a go at slagging off the United Kingdom.

Friends, by all appearances, it did not work out very well for him.

He was utterly diminished. Finally seeing the man who has spent his entire career wrapping himself in Union Jacks get absolutely eviscerated by a Democratic Congressman has to go down as one of the best examples of just how you take on slimy hypocrites - because Jamie Raskin finally called Farage exactly what he is:

It was utterly devastating, but it was also long overdue¹.

Ruskin went beyond throwing insults though - he systematically and methodically dismantled Nigel Farage’s entire enterprise:

“They only want free speech they agree with”, before he pointed out the glaring contradiction at the heart of Farage’s testimony:

“In the UK, Mr. Farage is openly promoting the abolition of the Human Rights Act of 1998 to be replaced with a British Bill of Rights that limits free speech to British citizens and legally sanctioned residents. He complains that racist threats against immigrants are not protected free speech while he proposes to strip migrants, tourists, and perhaps even visiting American congresspeople of any free speech rights at all.”

What happened in the US Congress yesterday went well beyond just one politician having ago at another - it was the moment that someone finally called out the breathtaking, weapons-grade hypocrisy that has defined Farage’s entire approach to free speech. While Farage was giving testimony about the threats to freedom of expression in the UK, his own party has banned journalists that they feel are “activist journalists” from their conference.

On top of this, Reform UK, over the past week, has also imposed media blackouts on local newspapers. The sheer brass neck of that man would be impressive if it weren’t so utterly, utterly contemptible.

Now, the local media blackout imposed by Reform may not seem that big of a deal, but it’s exceptionally telling in terms of what we can expect from Reform. In Nottinghamshire, where Reform controls the county council, every single one of the 41 Reform Councillors have been banned from speaking to Nottinghamshire Live.

It doesn’t just include local and independent media though - The Independent’s political editor, David Maddox, has also revealed that Reform’s leadership has previously made threatening calls, with one of the grievance-merchants explicitly stating that:

“I will make sure The Independent does not get to attend a single one of our events or get a single interview again.”

This sort of behaviour is what you may expect from a tinpot dictatorship, not a political party in a functioning democracy, and yet we had Farage yesterday comparing the UK to North Korea when it comes to free speech restrictions. The man is utterly shameless.

What made Raskin’s demolition of Farage particularly effective was that he didn’t just point out the hypocrisy which is there for all to see, he was able to bring some anecdotal experience into the mix. He recounted how Farage's team arranged “more than an hour” of conversation about free speech, but Farage “cut me off and terminated the meeting” after just three minutes because “he didn't like what I was saying”. That, Raskin noted, is “the kind of free speech he's committed to.”

It almost perfectly displays the Reform cadre’s entire approach to free speech - “Free speech for me, but not for thee.”

The speech also served to highlight something our own media seems very reluctant to properly interrogate - Farage’s disturbing fascination with Vladimir Putin:

“No one has stopped him from going on Russian TV 17 times and repeating that the one world political leader he most admired was Vladimir Putin, even though Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and a dictator who is regularly interfering in other countries' democratic elections… No one has stopped Mr. Farage from parroting Putin's absurd talking points, like when Farage claimed that NATO, the U.S., and Britain provoked this war in Ukraine.”

His most cutting observation, however, was saved to the end:

And this is where our media in the UK’s failure becomes most visible - how in the world is it that an American Congressman is doing a better job at holding Farage accountable for his Putin apologism than our own journalists? Why are we not seeing this same level of scrutiny in reporting every time Farage appears on a British television programme, usually what feels like four or five times a day?

The same goes for Brexit - Farage’s only political achievement to date. Brexit has turned into an unmitigated disaster, yet he is rarely (if ever) pressed on the specifics. When he does get challenged, he falls on the desperately tired refrain of “this is not the Brexit we voted for” or, more commonly, blames someone else entirely. But our traditional media seems far too content to let him get away with constant deflection and abdication instead of pushing him on concrete promises he made, and the reality of what Brexit has actually delivered.

Where are the forensic interviews about the £350m a week for the NHS? Where’s the accountability for trade deals that are yet to materialise? Where’s the reckoning with the economic damage and loss of freedoms that Brexit has actually given this country?

Instead, we get the endless platforming of Reform UK and Farage to spread bile and division, often without any meaningful challenge.

And speaking of platforms, we also need to discuss Farage’s employer. And no, I’m not referring to the people of Clacton, I’m taking about his actual employer because what did Farage decide to pin onto his bright blue suit yesterday?

A Union Jack you would think, considering just how excitable he and his ilk have been over them the last month?

No. A GB News Pin.

Screengrab from GB News - Available Online, Accessed Thursday 4 September 2025.

Which serves to tell us exactly where his loyalties lay - not with the work that he gets paid £93k a year to do by taxpayers, but with the news network that has paid him £313,292.40 since September 2024 (according to his own register of interests²) to have his own TV show. Where he gets to constantly exercise his freedom of speech. The fact of the matter is that he is not really the MP for Clacton - he’s a television presenter who just happens to have a seat in Parliament.

And what a commitment to that seat he has shown!

Since being elected last year, Farage has made at least eight confirmed trips to the United States, averaging more than one visit every two months, with his first trip being only fourteen days after being elected when he flew to the Republican National Convention³.

He’s hopped over the Atlantic for paid speaking engagements, fundraising galas and, of course, Trump’s inauguration. Meanwhile, in his first year as an MP, he has made only 46 contributions in the House of Commons (where he is supposed to be employed full-time) and has only mentioned his constituency four times.

The thing that makes this all the more galling, though, is the timing. Farage chose to testify to the US Congress about threats to free speech in the United Kingdom during a period in which Donald Trump is engaging in what constitutional law experts are calling “the gravest assault on freedom of speech since at least the McCarthy era”.

For some desperately needed context here, since coming into office in January, the Trump administration has:

• Revoked hundreds of foreign student visas for students involved with pro-Palestinian protests.

• Threatened to cut all federal funding from universities which allow what he would deem “illegal protests”.

• Targeted at least major law firms with executive orders revoking security clearances and banning them from federal contracts for the “crime” of representing his political opponents.

• Effectively shut down Voice of America⁴ after 83 years of continuous broadcasting and labelling the outlet “Anti-Trump” and “Radical”.

• Fired a statistician for reporting numbers that did not favourably reflect on the Dear Leader administration.

This is the man that Farage is utterly enthralled with - the demagogue and administration that he has been constantly cheerleading while testifying about the supposed free speech threats in the United Kingdom. The cognitive dissonance on display hear would be baffling if it weren’t all so blatantly calculated.

Now, I want to pause here and clarify something.

I do think that there are a few issues that we need to iron out in the UK when it comes to Freedom of Expression. The Crime and Policing bill that was introduced by the Tories was an open and direct assault on freedom of expression which gave the police sweeping powers to ban face coverings at protests and impose restrictions based on a vague set of rules about being in the “vicinity” of certain areas.

The proscription of Palestine Action and the hundreds of arrests that followed raise difficult questions that we do need to have a conversation about as a country, even if, as a disclaimer, I do not support their methods.

Even the arrest of Graham Linehan, someone who I have absolutely zero time for, has had me raise an eyebrow over whether the lines between incitement and free speech need to be reviewed⁵.

These are not, however, the things that Farage is concerned about. He has, as ever, taken a serious issue and twisted it into something that is completely self-serving.

His version of defending free speech involves defending Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s right to spread hate, while silencing journalists who dare to scrutinise his party.

It involves defending Boris “Windbag-Full-Of-Lies” Johnson’s right to compare muslim women to bank robbers, while accusing anyone who criticises him of being part of some fabled lefty establishment.

Farage uses the concept of free speech as a tactic, not a principle. He extends every protection possible to right-wing voices that support his agenda, while denying them to critics, journalists and marginalised groups who dare challenge his positions.

The fundamental issue with Farage is not only the incredible hypocrisy that he constantly displays, though that’s already problematic enough - it’s that he represents everything that’s wrong with our political discours. He is a man who has built his entire career on division, grievance and very largely, misinformation. He has never met a democratic norm that he wouldn’t trample all over if it served his purposes and who has consistently put his own interests above those of the people he claims to represent.

Yesterday, for once, someone properly called him out on it. Jamie Raskin went beyond challenging Farage’s arguments, and managed to expose the man himself. He showed him to be what many of us have long known a “Putin loving free speech imposter and Trump sycophant… who only wants to protect free speech they agree with.”

My question now is whether our own media in the UK will finally start holding Farage to the same standard. Will it start asking the hard questions about his Putin apologism, his Brexit lies, his abandonment and neglect of his constituents in Clacton and his systematic suppression of press freedom? Will they finally stop giving him unchallenged platforms to spread misinformation from and start treating him with the scrutiny and scepticism that he deserves?

I’m not holding my breath.

But, yesterday finally showed what is possible when someone with the courage, conviction and platform decides to do their job properly. Farage thought he was going to the US for yet another victory lap, but instead, he got the public humiliation he’s long deserved. And frankly, it could not have happened to a more deserving charlatan.

The man who spent years comparing the United Kingdom to authoritarian regimes while systematically finally, for one brief afternoon, met his match.

Long may it continue.

1. Jamie Raskin’s speech - I’m including his remarks in full here because they deserve to be read without filter or paraphrase:

“They only want to protect speech they agree with. In the UK, Mr. Farage is openly promoting the abolition of the Human Rights Act of 1998 to be replaced with a British Bill of Rights that limits free speech to British citizens and legally sanctioned residents.

He complains that racist threats against immigrants are not protected free speech while he proposes to strip migrants, tourists, and perhaps even visiting American congresspeople of any free speech rights at all.

I had my own close encounter with that when Mr. Farage and his team presented for more than an hour in a conversation we had about free speech. After three minutes of talking, he cut me off and terminated the meeting because he didn’t like what I was saying.

That’s the kind of free speech he’s committed to. There is a free speech crisis in America today, but there’s no free speech crisis in Britain. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not shut down GB News, where Mr. Farage has his own show, just because Mr. Farage has used his airtime to call for banning peaceful protests that he disagrees with.

No one has stopped him from going on Russian TV 17 times and repeating that the one world political leader he most admired was Vladimir Putin, even though Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and a dictator who is regularly interfering in other countries’ democratic elections.

No one has stopped Mr. Farage from parroting Putin’s absurd talking points, like when Farage claimed that NATO, the U.S., and Britain provoked this war in Ukraine.

For a man who fashions himself as some kind of free speech martyr, Mr. Farage seems most at home with the autocrats and dictators of the world who are crushing freedom on earth.

Mr. Farage wants to get rid of the Online Safety Act in his country, a law shepherded by the Conservative Party and implemented by the Labour Party, which bans child pornography online, protects children from harmful content, forbids non-consensual pornography, and other unlawful content. The positions he’s taking here in Congress today, in Parliament, which is meeting today, if he’s serious about it, he should go in advance to the people of the UK who think this Putin-loving free speech imposter and Trump sycophant will protect freedom in your country.

Come on over to America and see what Trump and MAGA 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.”

2. As a by the by - this worked out to 158 hours of work, meaning he gets paid £1,982.86 per hour. Nice job if you can get it.

3. And, of course, to hold his bestie, the Orange Real Estate Agent and Game Show Host’s hand.

4. When Russian State Media calls something like this an “awesome decision by Trump”, you know something has gone a bit awry.

5. For anyone wanting to bring up St Lucy the Angry - yes, it was fully correct that she was arrested and jailed for calling for Asylum Hotels to be burnt down