Kmflett's Blog

Nigel Farage takes French fascist leader Jordan Bardella for a Proper F*cking Lunch at 5 Hertford St

Nigel Farage has had a PFL with French fascist leader Jordan Bardella at 5 Hertford Place, a members club in central London, noted in recent years as a venue where Liz Truss ran up large bills entertaining people while Foreign Secretary.

Below is a note on what the place is like, a Spectator report on the politics of the PFL and a New Statesman note on what a Farage PFL consists of

5 Hertford Place

5 Hertford St is not the kind of place I frequent or would be allowed into (although I have been in some similar West End clubs over the years by invitation for some event or other- the beer is always crap). Its owner is Robin Birley a donor to UKIP and the Tory Party and it seems to be frequented by assorted members of the upper class and Tory MPs.

Given that it’s a members club- yearly cost £1800 (possibly more now) that’s not surprising and nor is any detail of what its actually like easy to find. There are it seems several bars, a downstairs night club and a cigar room. What reviews that can be found suggest that the cocktails are decent (if expensive) but the food (the point of lunch I would suggest) seems to be thought at best OK and certainly overpriced even compared to similar places in the West End.

The wages paid to those who actually keep the place running is another matter. Mirror reporter Dan Bloom tweeted that kitchen porters are paid £10.55 an hour. An advert for an assistant chef ( 4 shifts 9am-11pm a week) indicated a salary of ‘up to’ £25,000- that’s a year btw not a week.

None of that unfortunately is out of line with the notoriously poorly paid hospitality sector.

Spectator report

The two men had never met before but they shared a convivial lunch at 5 Hertford Street – with Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari serving as a translator. Farage, 61, is something of a lodestar for Bardella, 30, whose political career began when the Reform leader was already a well-established figure on the European scene. There are clearly shared goals between the two men, with Bardella remarking that ‘We must prepare our political movements to exercise power and that it is possible we will do so at the same time.’ It certainly fits with the ethos espoused by some figures in Donald Trump’s ‘MAGA’ movement, who believe that there ought to be common cause between the respective leaders of Europe’s radical right.

James Heale, The Spectator

The PFL

what is known in Farage circles as a “PFL”, or a “proper fucking lunch”, at Morton’s steakhouse, starting with a gin and tonic, topped up with two bottles of wine, usually red

New Statesman US correspondent Freddie Hayward on Farage in the US in the late 2010s