This morning’s by-election and local election results reflect a shift in British politics that can’t be ignored. Nigel Farage’s populist agenda is gaining ground, an agenda rooted in grievance, isolation, and an increasingly narrow definition of what Britain stands for.

This isn’t happening in a vacuum. After years of economic hardship, public services under pressure, and politics that too often feels out of touch, many voters are turning to those who promise quick fixes. But Farage’s message, for all its simplicity, doesn’t offer real solutions. It exploits frustration without answering it. It channels anger without repairing what’s broken.

What we’re seeing is the rise of a worldview that trades on division and disengagement. Its core instinct is retreat: retreat from international cooperation, from inclusive national identity, from responsibility. It claims to speak for ordinary people, but in practice it offers very little to the communities still living with the consequences of austerity, Brexit, and economic neglect.

And yet, there’s a vacuum that allows this message to grow, one created not only by material hardship, but also by a failure to speak confidently about what kind of country Britain can be. The answer to populism isn’t to go quiet. Nor is it to mimic the politics of grievance in a different voice. It’s to make the case, clearly and unapologetically, for something better.

That means talking about real investment in public services and infrastructure, not as a vague promise, but as a matter of national renewal. It means standing up for the idea that British values are rooted in fairness, decency, and solidarity, not in suspicion or nostalgia. And crucially, it means making the case for rebuilding our relationships with our European neighbours.

The anti-European sentiment that underpins Farage’s politics is more than just a campaign message, it’s a long-running project to redefine Britain's role in the world. But that vision is fundamentally out of step with the challenges we face. On energy, on trade, on migration, on security, there is no meaningful path forward for the UK without cooperation. A confident, forward-looking Britain must be internationalist by instinct and European by necessity.

Farage isn’t just echoing Trump’s rhetoric, he’s replicating his strategy. Like Trump, Farage thrives on fuelling division, blaming minorities, attacking democratic institutions, and presenting himself as a political outsider despite decades in the system he decries. He flatters disillusionment but offers no substance, just grievance, nationalism, and empty slogans. Both men built movements on the idea that their country had been ‘taken over’, and only they could ‘take it back’. But we’ve seen where that path leads: unrest, democratic erosion, and a politics of permanent outrage. Farage wants to turn Britain into a mirror of Trump’s America, angrier, meaner, and dangerously detached from reality.

As we approach the UK-EU Summit on 19 May, this is the message we will be championing. Not because it’s politically convenient, but because it’s right. We cannot meet the future by retreating from it. And we cannot let voices of division go unchallenged.

Farage’s agenda may be gaining ground, but so too is the appetite for something more hopeful, more open, and more honest. Let’s rise to meet it.