Farage fumbles as Iran war becomes cost-of- living issue

LONDON — Britain must “back the Americans in this vital fight against Iran!” said Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage the day the war began.

Less than two weeks on and he’s changed his tune. We “don’t have a Navy” and “cannot get involved directly in another foreign war,” Farage told a press conference on Tuesday.

What’s changed? An energy shock.

When the conflict had just started, and before it — predictably — sent oil and gas prices soaring and became a cost-of-living issue, he was all for it.

But as soon as it threatened to hit British voters in their pockets, and proved deeply unpopular in polls of normal Brits, he went all wobbly.

Some of Farage’s political opponents are determined not to let the populist leader distance himself from his original enthusiasm.

“Trying to pull the wool over our eyes,” said Green Party Leader Zack Polanski on Tuesday, responding to an X post in which Farage’s Treasury spokesperson, Robert Jenrick, said the “war needs to come to an end as soon as possible, because it is making Britain poorer.”

Having initially backed the conflict, Reform, said Polanski, is now “the party of foreign wars and higher bills.”

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has taken a similar tack, telling the BBC on Monday that voters worried about the war’s effect on the cost of living should remember that Farage’s Reform, like the Conservative’s Kemi Badenoch, “cheered on Donald Trump.”

Farage insisted Tuesday there’s no inconsistency, and that his original position had merely been that Prime Minister Keir Starmer should have allowed U.S. forces to launch attacks on Iran from U.K. bases from the outset of the conflict, not necessarily that the U.K. should join attacks on Iran.

But the shift in tone reveals something fundamental about British politics in 2026: The cost of living is everything. A war that threatens to send it even higher always had the potential to prove unpopular.

“The public are deeply uneasy about what they think could be unnecessary and costly involvement in foreign wars, [and have] significant hesitations about too close an alignment with President Trump,” said pollster Scarlett Maguire, director of Merlin Strategy.

Ed Miliband posted a video seeking to “reassure” voters that the “cost of living crisis remains our number one priority — because its yours.” | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

“The cost of living crisis in this country only exacerbates this, with voters already feeling that the government are not doing enough to bring down energy prices and inflation,” she added.

On Tuesday, Farage and Jenrick attempted to flip the narrative by blaming “a ruinous climate agenda” for high energy costs in the U.K. The two unveiled a pledge not to increase taxes on gasoline, a promise they would pay for by scrapping green spending on heat pumps and carbon capture technology.

And the Reform UK leader downplayed the impact of the war on oil and gas prices.

“If the Straits of Hormuz are cleared — I accept that’s an ‘if’ — oil will be back into the low 80s [dollars per barrel],” predicted Farage at the event at service station Derbyshire. But he was challenged by a local news reporter, who noted that a third of people in the local area use heating oil to warm their homes — and are already seeing prices rise.

The Labour government has, so far, been cautious not to attack Reform or the Conservatives too fiercely for their initial stance on the war, wary of driving a further wedge between Downing Street and the White House.

But they are seeking to portray themselves as the grown-ups in the room, laser-focused on the cost of living. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband posted an uncharacteristically sober video message to social media on Tuesday, seeking to “reassure” voters that the “cost of living crisis remains our number one priority — because its yours.”

Despite its own missteps over the Iran war, that’s a message Starmer’s government will be desperate to land, as the conflict’s shockwaves continue to hit Britain’s shores.

Noah Keate contributed to this report.