Nigel Farage wants you to know he is prepared to be tough towards Vladimir Putin. He has told an interviewer he would order the shooting down of Moscow’s jets if they dared enter Nato airspace, adding that the Russian president is “a very bad dude” whose behaviour is “terrible” and saying he supports use of frozen Kremlin assets to aid Ukraine’s defence.

The Reform UK leader hopes that his words will put what he calls “the Russia hoax stuff” finally to bed, showing he can be trusted to defend Britain’s national interests at a time when he is ahead in opinion polls and on course to become our country’s next prime minister.

The reason for this sudden bid to appear Churchillian is simple. Farage has a long and contemptible record of being so blinded by loathing of the European Union that

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