NEW YORK: Former US president Donald Trump celebrated the election of fellow populist Nigel Farage to Britain’s parliament on Friday, neglecting to mention the new prime minister, Keir Starmer.
Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party won the third largest vote haul, but under Britain’s electoral system it took just four seats while Starmer’s Labour party swept into office with a landslide.
“Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a Parliament Seat Amid Reform UK Election Success. Nigel is a man who truly loves his Country!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Farage is a long-standing ally of Trump, who has dubbed the divorced father-of-four “Mr Brexit” and previously said the British populist would have done a “great job” as the UK’s ambassador to Washington.
Farage is a champion of Brexit who was elected to parliament on his eighth attempt and has made no secret of his desire to take over the now-main opposition Conservative party, which was trounced at the polls by Labour.
“There is a massive gap on the center-right of British politics and my job is to fill it,” he said after a comfortable win in Clacton, eastern England.
The result bucks a rightward trend among Britain’s closest allies, with the far-right National Rally in France eyeing power and Trump looking set for a return in the United States.
Farage’s win will likely embolden the attention-grabbing populist figurehead in his long-term aim of staging a “takeover” of the Conservatives.
Millions of their voters appeared to have already switched their support to Reform, handing the Tories one of their worst-ever results.
An initial exit poll had caused a stir Thursday night after predicting Reform would secure 13 seats — far exceeding forecasts in the latter stages of the campaign that it would win just a handful of seats.
Trump congratulates UK’s Farage, ignores PM Starmer
https://arab.news/ymrwp
Trump congratulates UK’s Farage, ignores PM Starmer
- Farage is a long-standing ally of Trump
- Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party won the third largest vote haul
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
