Nigel Farage’s regular Telegraph column to end amid ownership changes

Nigel Farage’s regular column for the Telegraph is coming to an end, according to the Guardian, as changes under the newspaper’s new owner bring uncertainty over its political direction. The Reform UK leader is the latest prominent figure on the right to leave its roster of contributors.

Accounts differ over why the arrangement is ending. Sources suggested that Axel Springer, the Telegraph’s new German owner, had chosen not to renew Farage’s contract. People close to Farage, however, said he resigned on Friday because he disagreed with the newspaper’s direction. The register of MPs’ financial interests puts his payment at about £4,000 a month. He received a retainer for regular contributions, without a set weekly or monthly number of columns.

Farage wrote for the newspaper as recently as last week, criticising the first budget under Andy Burnham’s premiership. He promised to end benefits for foreigners, remove net zero targets and sharply reduce foreign aid. Earlier columns encouraged readers to vote Reform and defended the party’s acceptance of two unprecedented £36m donations from crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. Farage wrote that both donors wanted nothing in exchange.

His departure follows reports last week that Allison Pearson, another firmly rightwing Telegraph columnist, was in discussions about leaving. Those developments have intensified questions about Axel Springer’s plans for the title. The owner wants to establish the Telegraph in the US as a centre-right publication supporting free speech and competing with the Wall Street Journal.

Within the Telegraph, some staff have expressed concern about its relationship with Reform, given the newspaper’s longstanding association with the Conservatives. One source of unease was Reform’s repeated placement of sympathetic stories intended to get ahead of potentially damaging coverage elsewhere. Some insiders also objected to an article about a journalist reaching Britain in a small boat, after it emerged that the journalist was a Reform member and activist. The newspaper also publishes Isabel Oakeshott, the former Sunday Times political editor, who supports many Reform policies and is the partner of its deputy leader, Richard Tice.

Axel Springer has meanwhile outlined plans for widespread redundancies, including in the newsroom, with sport and culture appearing particularly affected. Staff anger has been sharpened by earlier suggestions from the company’s billionaire chief executive, Mathias Döpfner, that growth could not be achieved through cuts. Many employees anticipate announcements about US expansion, although the strategy presented so far has left many confused.

The apparent ending of Pearson’s column has prompted criticism from supporters and other figures on the right. Alex Phillips, a former Brexit party politician who now presents on Rupert Murdoch’s TalkTV, accused the Telegraph of removing leading commentators ahead of a shift to the left. Pearson’s Planet Normal podcast, co-hosted with economics writer Liam Halligan, also appears set to stop being published by the newspaper. Halligan has announced that his Sunday Telegraph column was scrapped as part of the cuts.

A Telegraph source declined to discuss individual employment matters. Telegraph Media Group’s latest accounts recorded a £4m loss last year, attributed to legal costs arising from its prolonged ownership saga and asset revaluations. Revenue edged down from 2024 to £273.2m. Separately, Telegraph Media Group Holdings reported an underlying pre-tax operating profit of about £48m.