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Brexit leader Nigel Farage cited Andrew Breitbart as he revealed a fresh defection to his insurgent right-wing-populist Reform UK party on Thursday as he hailed the “remarkable” surge in Gen-Z support for figures like Donald Trump.

Nigel Farage unveiled the surprise defection of a former Conservative Party government cabinet minister to his Reform UK party, renamed from the Brexit Party which had a major hand in bringing down Prime Minister Theresa May. Dame Andrea Jenkyns will join the race to become the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire for the party next year.

Surveying the wider fortunes of his political movement, Mr Farage hailed the success of allies abroad like President-elect Donald Trump, stating strident right-wingers were seeing great successes in capturing the youth vote in a way that would have been “unthinkable” in the recent past. And in a tribute to Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart, Farage said it was the positive spirit of the activists which helped carry the movement forward.

LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 28: Leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage (R), Chairman of Reform UK Zia Yusuf (2R) and new Reform UK party member and former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns (2L) are seen while attending a Reform UK press conference on November 28, 2024 in London, England. The populist Reform UK party called a press conference to make a statement on party growth and professionalization. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Farage said: “if you come to a Reform event, you’ll find happy people. We are happy warriors! And it’s because we actually genuinely think this never-ending cycle of negativity, of economic decline, or society decline can be turned around with strong leadership.”

Of Trump’s recent re-election, Farage reflected: “In fact I think that’s what the American people thought in their recent elections, and boy am I looking forward to my new friend Elon Musk taking on the Administrative State in America. It may well prove a blueprint that perhaps we can use if things go well after 2029.”

“Something remarkable is happening” with the political views of “Gen-Z”, said the Reform leader, pointing to the huge traffic being consumed by under-30s from his social media accounts, the preponderance of younger supporters emerging, and the voter demographics seen in the United States. Farage said: “it’s happening in America at the last election where Trump got 44 per centof the under-30s to vote for him, something that was unthinkable in 2016 and 2020. And it’s happening across much of the rest of Europe too.”

Perhaps part of the appeal to younger voters of politicians like Farage and Trump is the concern, if not outright despair, felt among many about soaring house prices. Mr Farage like other right-wingers identifies property prices as being a function of not just supply but demand as well, pointing to soaring mass migration pushing ever upwards competition for finite places to live.

Mr Farage reflected on this relationship on Thursday morning as he responded to Britain’s latest migration figures, stating of “the latest immigration figures which are horrendous. Horrendous if you want to get a GP appointment, horrendous if you want to travel on Britain’s Motorways. Horrendous if you want your kids or grandkids to ever get a foot onto the housing ladder.”

Nigel Farage has frequently quoted Andrew Breitbart, and Breitbart News, in the past, particularly the idea of the ‘happy warrior‘ and the power of laughter rather than sour-faced hectoring to change minds. The phrase itself goes back further, however, and may originate with the poet Wordsworth who wrote of the stoical happy warrior who takes strength from the knowledge of eternal glory in virtuous and righteous work.