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A teenager from Jersey who recently managed to nab a selfie with Nigel Farage has explained why he thinks the Reform UK leader's popularity is "growing and growing" with young people.
Joe Patterson, a Year 13 student at Victoria College, was on a school trip when he asked the controversial politician for a picture.
Mr Farage gladly obliged, later sharing a clip of the interaction on social media with the caption: "Always happy to take a selfie!
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Joe is in Year 13 studying business, politics and economics at Victoria College.
He met Mr Farage whilst attending 'PolEcon', a conference for A-Level and IB students who are studying politics.
Though the 17-year-old hasn't decided yet what he wants to do after A-Levels, Joe is a boxer for Leonis Boxing Club in his spare time and was recently nominated to fight in next year's Open Championship, held in September 2025. This, he says, will take up a large section of the upcoming year.
He described Mr Farage as a "funny" and "humorous" figure, and said that his classmates had encouraged him to go up to the stage and ask a question at PolEcon.
Joe decided in the moment that he would ask the Reform UK leader for a selfie.
"I think Farage is very, very funny, and I think he's a good guy," said Joe.
"I think he connects well with the youth. He's a bit like marmite – you either love him or hate him.
"He's definitely on the rise and I think he's just growing and growing."
Joe attributes Mr Farage's success to his personality, describing him as "a people person".
Pictured: The selfie Joe and Farage took. (Joe Patterson)
Though Joe likes Mr Farage, he said his peers are spread across the political spectrum.
"We have quite a mix," he said.
"I think everyone is in agreement he [Mr Farage] is a very funny person, but our class is very mixed."
Joe explained: "It's good to have a mix of everyone – but everyone stays civil with debates, which is a good thing.
"We've got a complete socialist in our class, which I'm quite opposed to, but we're civil in our debates.
"We stay even, we don't raise our voices. The teacher's done really well."
Joe added that, whilst he likes Mr Farage's policy, he thinks "politics is becoming about personality".
"He [Mr Farage] recently said that you've got to love your country and the people have got to love you if you want to run your country well," he added.
Joe said that he didn't feel Farage's policies would hurt marginalised groups, citing Reform's Chairman Zia Yusuf – but acknowledged that Mr Farage's main audience was white men.
Joe added that he hadn't yet had the opportunity to vote in Jersey and pointed to low political engagement – which isn't helped, he added, by a "weird" political system and uncontested elections.
But, he said that he believes "engagement is increasing" amongst the island's youth.
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