Farage appears in Commons gallery as ‘mere spectator’ at PMQs

Nigel Farage took to a side gallery for this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), instead of his usual seat next to other Reform UK MPs, claiming he is a “mere spectator”.

The Clacton MP sat above the Labour benches with Reform backer Arron Banks.

“Every week at PMQs I am attacked by the PM and Labour MPs, but have no right of reply,” the Reform UK leader wrote on X.

“I am just a mere spectator.

“So I have decided to spectate from the public gallery today instead.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer takes questions from MPs for around half-an-hour each Wednesday.

MPs who want to ask a question, alongside the Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders Kemi Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey, can enter a ballot for one of 15 slots, in a random selection sometimes known as “the shuffle”.

Mr Farage last week complained on social media that he heard “yet another” set of exchanges where he was “mentioned but can’t respond”.

He added at the time: “There is not much point me even being there.”

It followed Sir Keir’s claim that he and Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice had “worked alongside someone who took money to spread Putin’s propaganda”.

The Prime Minister said: “Whatever their denials, they have serious questions to answer about what they knew.

“But that is the choice – Kremlin cronies sewing division or Labour patriots working for national renewal.”

Last month, Reform UK’s former leader in Wales Nathan Gill, 52, of Anglesey, admitted taking bribes in return for statements in favour of Vladimir Putin’s Russia while he was a Member of the European Parliament.

His activities were said to include making pro-Russian statements about events in Ukraine in the European Parliament and in opinion pieces to news outlets.