What Gen Z really think about Nigel Farage (and it’s not what you think)

He’s the ultimate boomer who stands against everything young people believe in ... isn’t he? Lucy Holden discovers that not all 20-year-olds watching the ex-Ukip leader on ‘I’m a Celebrity’ are turned off by him

Nigel Farage goes head to head with Gen-Zer Nella Rose (ITV/Shutterstock)

Bushtucker trials are the new Brexit – thanks to the inclusion of one of the most polarising politicians in the history of modern Britain entering the jungle of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! The arrival of the former Ukip leader and Brexit party MEP Nigel Farage into the Australian jungle (wearing, naturally, a pair of Union Jack socks) has won him a surprising new fanbase: Gen Z. That’s right, the politician labelled by many as the most abhorrent “racist” toad in politics is being backed by the super woke because they think he’s being “body shamed” on ITV and actually like the fact he looks like a cartoon frog.

Thanks to my parents, I’m used to living in a house as split as a failed cake-mix by opinions on Farage. As Brexiters sought a decision to seek a divorce from the EU, my mum was wondering whether to seek a divorce with my dad; their views were so polar and grating. As a result, we don’t talk about politics in my house anymore, but my 72-year-old father, I’ve now realised, has a surprising amount in common with Gen Z (anyone between 11 and 26 years old).

He loves Farage and Love Island and has more followers online than I do. Yes, he did once get banned from Instagram and won’t tell us why (I dread to think) but what’s going on here? Do boomers and the wokest, most diverse generation of all time have way more in common than they believe? As a millennial, I’m starting to feel caught in the middle.

Daisy, a 20-year-old Londoner and hopeful drama student, said she initially wanted to watch such a “controversial” figure “squirm his way” through the challenges. But now, she says, she’s enjoying watching him because “he just comes across as this sweet old man. He’s pulled his trousers up so high, his shirt’s tucked in.” Whoever’s in charge of Farage’s “look” needs a medal because his “old headmaster” vibe is winning the hearts, if not the minds, of Gen Z.

Daisy, 20, from London, who describes herself as ‘kind of apolitcal’, enjoys watching Farage as he comes across as a ‘sweet old man’ (Supplied)

“Bless him!” says Daisy. “I just feel really sorry for him because despite his opinions he’s still a person and Ant and Dec, who are supposed to be neutral, are being unfair to Nigel. Every time Nigel has a shower or a bath, it’s in the show, and Ant and Dec are horrible about his bottom and his body and they couldn’t say that about anyone else.

“Imagine them saying that about a woman, they’d be cancelled on the spot, and so I just don’t think it’s ok for them to say it about Nigel, even though people don’t like him. He has feelings.”

Daisy describes herself as “kind of apolitical”, which seems to be part of the reason the youngsters are lapping him up – they’re so switched off from politics and the news (unless it involves the environment or social media) that as long as politicians don’t talk about what they’re doing, they’re ready to like them well enough. The worst thing you can be to my generation is boring, and the worst to Gen Z seems to be “bland”. Plus, they want to make everything funny on TikTok, says Jaiya, 23, who lives in Brighton and works at one of the universities.

“My generation will make jokes out of everything and so we like watching the trials” she explains. “We don’t particularly like him, we just want to see him endure the worst of it and have to explain himself to everyone.

“It’s kind of like with Boris [Johnson], we don’t like him politically but the way he interacts with the public, the way he portrays himself, is hilarious. Maybe TikTok has something to do with it because the fact we managed to have someone running the country who got stuck mid-air on a zip wire with two union jacks was just so funny.”

Hollie, 23, who lives near Bristol, says that Farage is ‘entitled, arrogant and belittling’ (Supplied)

Those that older generations see as “depressingly in charge” and even “terrifyingly powerful”, the younger ones choose to see as “funny” in a slapstick way, possibly because humour is a great defence, and they don’t feel able to change anything themselves. Similarly, Leo, 16, says: “I like him, he’s just really positive, like someone who has never had anything bad ever happen to him. All my mates like him too, they think he’s funny.”

But they’re also media savvy and understand that politicians go into the jungle just wanting to get a younger, bigger audience to like them – which Farage himself admitted when he whispered to a fellow contestant he wanted more challenges because he’d get 25 per cent more “airtime and be able to build an audience”.

“It works because the moment you stop talking about politics and start acting more like a human, people are more inclined to like you,” says Jaiya, who is alone in her household liking him. “Ew,” says Jaiya’s 36-year-old sister Sam.

Nella Rose, the only Gen Z contestant in the jungle, has admitted to liking Farage despite not loving his opinions on migration. The placing of the old, white, posh, male, “racist” politician on a show with the young, Black, female YouTuber with hundreds of thousands of followers, was obviously designed by producers to cause tension. But while they differ in every single way, Nella admitted during the viral row about immigration: “I really like you and I want to know why everyone hated you. We don’t have to come to a common ground.”

Jaiya, 23, who lives in Brighton, believes that seeing Farage outside of a political context allows him to seem human (Supplied)

“When he got into that conversation with Nella I thought he came across so well,” says 20-year-old Daisy. “He was patient, stuck to his views, and Nella Rose just shouted over him and was vile. She said all Black people hate him – imagine if Nigel spoke to her that way – he’d be cancelled. The one thing we don’t want to see is bullying on TV and I think Nigel is being bullied – not that it seems to be affecting him but it’s uncomfortable to watch. I think that’s why he’ll end up doing really well.”

Hollie Morgan, 23, who lives near Bristol, and works at the American Museum in Bath, severely hopes he will not. “I do understand why some people like him, because he looks like a DNA mix of Crazy Frog and Sam Eagle (from the Muppets),” she says. “But I still think he’s an a******. So entitled and arrogant, and so belittling when he’s whining about the camp not being tidy enough – does he tidy up in his real life, or do people do that for him? Then he sent his food bowl back because it wasn’t clean enough – they’re in the jungle for Christ’s sake,” she adds.

She remembers being 15 when the European referendum happened and understood more than anything Farage’s “barrage of anti-immigrant, racist propaganda”, she says. “That influenced my opinion of him going into the jungle because it was all I knew about him. I couldn’t believe he was being let onto the show – it was a joke in itself, giving someone like that airtime. During the first couple of episodes, when he was constantly paired with Nella, I kept wondering when he was going to lose his cool and say something racist. I swear he was only just keeping it together during the immigration chat.”

Holly doesn’t think he’ll be able to hold it together for too long though. “He’s got a gameplan, and it’s not going to be a good one,” says Holly. “I really hope he doesn’t last long – I feel so sorry for Josie that she had to see him in the shower.”