Times’ columnist suggests Reform are the ‘snowflakes’ now

As we’ve reported, several establishment outlets have put an enhanced focus on Reform UK and Nigel Farage. Perhaps most notably, this has seen the investigations team at Rupert Murdoch’s Times newspaper revealing all sorts of financial scandals. It’s not just the investigative reporters who are diving in two feet first, though; the columnists are also at it:

Reform can’t have it both ways on ‘hurty words’ https://t.co/nR0dR8tiHE

— Times Politics (@timespolitics) July 15, 2026

Security

Because his father was a minister in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, Rifkind has some experience of the security politicians receive. This is relevant right now, because Reform politicians have made some wild and false claims about the security they receive from parliament.

In his piece, Rifkind notes:

Yesterday, Reform’s party chairman, Zia Yusuf, demanded round-the-clock protection for all 650 MPs. Aside from the expense, the obvious flaw here is that this wouldn’t have helped Widdecombe, who wasn’t one, any more than it would Yusuf himself, who isn’t either. It also only deals with a symptom of the real problem.

Elsewhere, Rifkind described Yusuf as “increasingly wild”. It’s a fair thing to note, especially because Yusuf keeps making false claims, and making costly and unworkable proposals which won’t fix the problems he’s identifying. This is also why people are accusing Reform of using this event and others (especially the Clacton by-election) to distract from Farage’s ongoing financial scandals:

As I said yesterday. Reform’s supporters are moving from trying to suppress any scrutiny of Nigel Farage’s £5m donation to trying to suppress any scrutiny or criticism of Reform at all. https://t.co/C39dbG4z5N

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) July 16, 2026

Reform are now piling in on Kemi Badenoch because they say it was bad taste for her to make a quip about Count Binface whilst the party are in mourning. But apparently the death of a dear colleague wasn’t enough to cancel your summer party 48 hours later?

The usual selective… pic.twitter.com/tXL9CaJPeS

— Sam (@SamCKx) July 16, 2026

Political blowback for Reform

The key argument Rifkind makes is that Reform is being hypocritical in how it expects others to treat them. It’s a point others have made too:

https://t.co/DvdMy4HL5Z pic.twitter.com/Q5Xfbishcm

— NJ (@NoJusticeMTG) July 15, 2026

Rifkind wrote:

Here, though, Reform is on tricky ground. Yesterday Yusuf also hit out at rival politicians for “equating us to murderous regimes that butchered tens of millions of people”, on the basis that it might incite violence. I agree with him. I’m not sure he agrees with himself.

Reform, remember, is also the party that put Lucy Connolly on stage, introducing her as “Britain’s favourite political prisoner” after she called for asylum hotels to be firebombed. For two years they led, with sneers, the argument that mere “hurty words” hurt nobody. Meanwhile, Farage has accused Richard Hermer, the attorney-general, of “hating our history and our country” and accused plenty more of plenty more. This very week, Yusuf himself, who seems to be growing increasingly wild, hit back at the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor — who mildly chided Farage for politicising Widdecombe’s death — by publicly denouncing him as “depraved” for a historic gay sex offence that today wouldn’t be illegal. He is also still telling his followers that the Tories “destroyed Britain” and that Andy Burnham is about to destroy it even more. And on, and on.

As Rifkind notes, Reform UK politicians are relentlessly inflammatory in their rhetoric. At the same time, they’re incredibly comfortable with bad things happening to other politicians:

Given Reform's Press Conference today about MP safety, worth revisiting this clip of sitting Reform MP Sarah Pochin, and Reform supporter Jeremy Kyle laughing on TV at the firebombing of the Prime Minister's house… https://t.co/9Fi3PbWehH

— andy twelves (@andytwelves) July 15, 2026

All so very predictable, Reform…

In closing, Rifkind noted that Reform would have called him a “snowflake” in the past for suggesting political rhetoric can have consequences. He also said:

Either this matters, or it doesn’t. Either maniacs are inspired by incendiary language or they are not. Personally, I think the link is diffuse, but I also think it pretty damn obvious that the more violent and condemnatory our discourse, the more likely it becomes that various maniacs will find focus for their mania.

We made similar points on 13 July, writing:

If you’re going to label people ‘traitors’ — as Zia Yusuf has — then people are going to get angry. If you’re going to claim successive governments have overseen an ‘invasion’ — as he has — then tensions are going to rise.

Politicians who stoke fear and division think they can ride the wave, but hatred is more like a fire than a sea. And people who play with fire get burned.

Scrutiny

The alleged murder of Ann Widdecombe is a grave event that needs to be taken seriously. It’s questionable if Reform politicians are treating it seriously, though, because they’re using it to argue we should treat them with kids gloves while donning knuckle dusters themselves.

Voters see through this sort of stuff. And Reform politicians aren’t going to make themselves popular by constantly attacking everyone for sometimes attacking them.

Featured image via the Canary