Farage proclaimed ‘Britain’s future PM’ at champagne fuelled Trump celebration party
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The Independent’s political editor David Maddox and White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg were at the Hay Adams hotel opposite the White House as Brexiteer Brits hosted the biggest inauguration party in town and plotted a populist right future with their US allies.
![[Donald Trump looks on as Nigel Farage speaks for him at a 2016 campaign event]](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/05/23/18/faragetrump.jpg)
Nigel Farage was proclaimed as “the next prime minister of Great Britain” at a huge party overlooking the White House to celebrate the upcoming inauguration of his friend and ally Donald Trump. The Stars and Stripes Union Jack reception on the rooftop of the Hay Adams hotel on Friday night became a gathering of the glitterate of the US and UK political right, with Maga Republicans rubbing shoulders with Reform UK, senior Conservatives, and Brexiteers.
![[Farage addresses inauguration party]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/18/18/image3.jpg)
Organised by the so-called “bad boys of Brexit” Andy Wigmore and Arron Banks, who had initially been blocked from entering the US, along with leading Washington fixer Gerry Gunster, the party became a celebration of Farage (the guest honour) and his eight years of friendship with Trump.
![[Liz Truss is in DC for the inauguration (Jacob King/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/13/13/a7ea97efe6c3d63fbc6fddafaed13c43Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM2ODU5NDYy-2.76753234.jpg)
The victory of the incoming president against what many in the room saw as staggering odds was taken as a sign of what could happen in the UK and Europe. Mr Gunster opened the speeches proclaiming: “I hope when we are next gathered it is not in eight years but to celebrate Nigel Farage becoming the prime minister of Great Britain.” To cheers he suggested that Mr Farage - one of the five Reform MPs - “could put the great back in Britain again”.
