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Former politician-turned-GB News presenter, Nigel Farage, said his brand of right-wing politics is growing in Ireland, as he praised the size of an anti-immigration march held in Dublin on Monday.
Mr Farage, who was speaking to The Irish Times on the fringes of the Westminster launch on Tuesday of former prime minister Liz Truss’s new Popular Conservatives faction, also criticised the Republic’s political establishment over its handling of immigration as an issue.
“I’ve long been surprised that Irish politics in Dublin didn’t represent a lot of the conversations that I have heard, travelling around the other parts of Ireland,” he said. “[But] I think that’s now beginning to happen.”
Mr Farage, the founder of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), remains one of the most influential figures in British politics and also finished third in the I’m A Celebrity… reality television show in December.
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He spoke approvingly in London of the right-wing march held in Dublin on the bank holiday, for which about 300 gardaí were deployed.
The marchers, who carried banners proclaiming “Ireland for the Irish”, were estimated to number up to 700 by some reporters at the scene, although the organisers of the anti-migration protest insisted the turnout was in the thousands. Gardaí arrested about 11 people around the event.
[ Anti-immigrant march and counter protest in Dublin see 300 gardaí deployed ]
The march was addressed by speakers including Hermann Kelly, the leader of the fringe right-wing Irish Freedom Party. Mr Kelly was a parliamentary press officer in Brussels who worked with Mr Farage when the politician was an MEP before Brexit.
When asked if he felt the brand of anti-migrant, closed-border politics would continue spreading in Ireland, Mr Farage responded: “Without a doubt. I was just the first [to call for it].”
He referred back to his time in Brussels when he said he argued that “getting the balance right on borders and identity is really important”.
“I was called all the names under the sun for it, [but] now it has become mainstream thinking.”
Mr Farage is currently publicly toying with the idea of a return to frontline British politics at the election due this year, although he previously told The Irish Times he had no desire to run again.
PopCon, a new Conservative grouping in Britain and a fringe movement within the Conservative Party, claims it wants to restore democratic accountability and champion popular conservative policies. Spearheaded by Ms Truss, the campaign also features the involvement of former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.
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