With Nige still sulking, Honest Bob was left to unveil Reform’s latest ‘policies’ | John Crace

It’s turning out to be one of the longer sulks in Nigel Farage’s already sulk-filled career. Few politicians are better at having a strop and holding a grudge than Nige. At least on this side of the Atlantic.

Donald Trump could give Farage a run for his money, but skin doesn’t come much thinner than Nige’s. He’s the soul of the Reform party as long as he’s the centre of attention and the yes-men and women – that’s everyone – around him are saying yes. But the moment reality challenges his narcissism, the mirror cracks.

There was a time when you couldn’t keep Nige away from a TV camera or a gathering of reporters. But ever since the Guardian revealed his £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, Farage has gone all shy. Unable to bear the humiliation of being seen for the man he really is.

Everything he has spent the last 25 years trying to persuade people he isn’t. Even with the Reform party conference just over a week away and the pressure on him to be at his sparkling best, Nige is still playing hard to get. His one concession has been to give the softest of soft interviews to Jeremy Kyle, Reform’s pet stooge from TalkTV.

When GB News is too challenging for Nige, then you know he is in a very delicate state. Nor is there any sign of his self-imposed exile having improved his frame of mind. His latest fantasy is that immigrants are on the verge of forming their own standing army and going to war with the UK.

Not even Kyle could quite keep a straight face. So for the latest instalment of the Reform summer press conference-athon, we were back to Robert Jenrick. Back, because the front-of-house formalities have been almost exclusively left to him and Dicky Tice, and it was Honest Bob’s misfortune to have drawn the short straw on Wednesday morning.