Farage sucks up to genocidal, authoritarian petro-state in the UAE

Nigel Farage has been in Dubai to drum up donations and lavish praise upon the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Reform UK leader is a man all too eager to blame Britain’s problems on Muslims. But the truth is Farage knows a good thing when he sees it. And by ‘good’, we mean rich.

Middle East Eye (MEE) exclusively reported details of Farage’s Dubai visit on 28 January:

On Wednesday evening, he gave a keynote speech at a private party hosted by GB News, the right-wing British television channel for which Farage is a presenter.

Wait, what? Muslim-bashing nativist channel GB News was in Dubai too? You heard right. And there’s more:

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE’s minister of industry and advanced technology, attended the party, which was held on the rooftop of the high-end Ritz-Carlton hotel and attended by around eighty people.

Farage made some very appreciative noises about the UAE in his speech to Emirati officials:

We have a lot to learn from you, my dear sirs. We recognise you are our friends.

Adding:

A Brexit London, a Reform London, will remember you.

But what could an upstanding British MP like Nigel Farage possibly admire about a violently authoritarian, genocidal dictatorship with bottomless wealth?

Truly a mystery for the ages…

An international nexus of complete weirdos

Also in attendance at the party was major funder of GB News, Christopher Chandle, who “loves Britain but is too pessimistic to live there”. Then there was Reform London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, and the disgraced ex-Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who recently defected to Reform.

MEE said that Farage had been on a charm offensive in the run-up to the visit. In September he publicly called for a UK ban on the Muslim Brotherhood. The UAE has already banned the group.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an international political party and tendency founded in Egypt in 1928. It advances a form of political Islam. The Brotherhood is banned in Egypt and several Gulf dictatorships.

According to MEE:

it is considered a major threat by many autocratic governments in the Middle East and North Africa.

This is because, in rare instances in which free elections are held in the region, parties affiliated with the organisation often win outright or form the largest opposition party.

Farage, a fanatical supporter of the massively rich, spent some time hobnobbing with billionaires based in the region.

MEE reported that the Reform chief had also hosted a private lunch:

with the backing of Dubai-based Indian billionaire Sunny Varkey at Rockfish, a beachside restaurant.

They added:

The lunch was reportedly attended by wealthy UAE-based donors. Farage had visited Abu Dhabi just last month on a trip reportedly paid for by the UAE government.

Apparently the UAE has been keen to cosy up to Reform:

owing to a shared opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood.

That may well be the case. But it sounds like a partial explanation, at best.

Farage, a multi-millionaire banker, knows the value of money. And on balance of probability, he does not spend his time in rooms full of billionaires simply because he enjoys giving speeches.

In the UAE, Farage has a kindred spirit — and a potential financial backer with a keen interest in the shape of Britain’s next government.

Featured image via the Canary