Duped

Nigel Farage duped into sending pro-IRA message

Brexiteer sent what he thought was an ‘innocent’ message on video-sharing platform Cameo.

BY PAUL DALLISON

Nigel Farage, Irish republican?

No, but the Brexiteer did send a pro-IRA message as part of a birthday greeting on Cameo (the video-sharing platform, not the 1980s funk hitmakers).

Farage is one of many politicians and celebrities to use Cameo to earn cash. For €87, the former leader of UKIP/the Brexit Party/Reform UK, and now host of a show on GB News, will record a personal message. Clearly, the system is open to abuse.

In a message widely shared on social media, Farage says: “This message is for Brian Ó Céileachair, Brexiteer, and I hope you have a great birthday. This comes from your good friend Aidan. Now, it’s a bit early in the day, so all I’ve got, actually, is coffee. But I hope you enjoy a few pints with the lads tonight. Up the ’Ra!”

“Up the ’Ra!” is, as Farage perhaps should have known, a phrase often used by people who support the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

Farage said he wasn’t aware what the expression meant. He told the Mail: “If I saw ‘up the RA’ I would have looked at that as something very innocent, and wouldn’t have even known there was an implication to it.”

He added: “A lot of messages that I get are friends sending each other messages with their own little jokes or their own little words which I have to judge — and of course I reject some if they are crude or offensive.”