From pop princess to darling of the far-Right

WHAT was the catalyst that prompted Nigel Farage’s dramatic U-turn last week, when he announced that he was going to lead Reform UK?

- Emma Loffhagen and Katie Strick

Some speculated that it could have been his friend Donald Trump’s conviction putting him off his plan to campaign across the pond, or being accused of “bottling it” on Question Time.

But there has also been a far unlikelier influence on Farage’s political career: Holly Valance, 41, the former pop star and Neighbours actress who shot to fame with her number one single Kiss Kiss in 2002 and who has since become something of a regular on the Right-wing political circuit alongside her husband Nick Candy, the British billionaire property tycoon and Tory donor.