Nigel Farage has moved to tackle concerns that he is pro-Putin by appointing a new defence spokesman who until recently was helping Nato work with Ukraine.
Reform UK will on Thursday unveil wing commander Angus MacIntyre as its new armed forces spokesman after months of criticism over the party’s failure to take defence seriously.
Mr Farage has faced difficult questions over his praise for Vladimir Putin in the past and there have been concerns over former Reform Welsh leader Nathan Gill being sent to prison for taking bribes from Moscow.
One of Wg Cdr MacIntyre’s most recent roles included working at Nato headquarters in Brussels and spending four years focussed on UK support to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The issue came up again this week, with unearthed comments of Mr Farage speaking just days after Russia’s invasion, revealing him as saying that he “understood” why Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and that he believed the Russian president to be a “rational player” at that time.
He continued, saying that Putin acted because Crimea and territories in the Donbas region were “Russian-speaking communities” and “would rather be part of a greater Russia than part of somewhere else”.
Wg Cdr McIntyre is understood to have quit last week from the RAF regiment to allow him to take up the Reform role.
His 40-year military career began in the British Army in 1986, serving with the 17th/21st Lancers and later the 1st Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, including attachments to the Royal Marines and Parachute Regiment, with deployments in Arctic Norway, Northern Ireland and the jungles of Brunei.
After transferring to the RAF Regiment in 1999, he also completed operational tours in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Iraq, and Somalia.
Confirming his appointment, he said: “Earlier this year, Nigel said he wanted people from outside of politics with real-world experience to come and help Reform UK fix broken Britain.
“Last week I ended a 40-year military career to answer that call. I can think of no better way to continue my service to our great nation than by standing alongside Nigel Farage and the Reform UK team and explaining why, despite the current state of our country and her armed forces, our best days still lie ahead.
“The two old guard parties have left our armed forces under severe pressure. The cuts during the Brown and Blair years took chunks from the ranks of all three services. The Conservatives promised to fix it, but over their 14 years in government, they oversaw a further decline in our military power.
“Neither can be trusted. Only Reform UK can fix and rebuild our armed forces.”
Reform pointed out that Mr MacIntyre’s 40 years of service exceeds the combined 31 years on the Labour benches.
Mr Farage said: “Having someone of Angus’ stature and calibre speak for us on defence shows how seriously Reform UK takes protecting the interests of Britain’s military.
“Angus has more experience than the entire government defence team combined. He is representative of our drive to bring into politics people with high-level and real-world experience - as opposed to career politicians – to run government departments.”
But it appears that Wg Cdr MacIntyre disagrees with Mr Farage and senior figures in Reform over female recruits.
He actively encouraged women to qualify as RAF commandos. In March 2024, speaking as chairman of the RAF Commando Association, he advocated supporting female applicants through commando training and highlighted the RAF’s slower progress compared with other services.
In contrast, Mr Farage said in 2010: “Do we actually want to be there with women beside us? Do we? What an extraordinarily bizarre idea! I certainly don't think so. But maybe it's because I've got so many women pregnant over the years that I have a different view.”
Meanwhile, more recently in 2025, Mr Tice shared station commander Group Captain Louise Henton’s biography and wrote: “Kept safe & secure by an HR manager... Well done folks”.
Mr MacIntyre’s appointment comes just days after The Independent revealed analysis on how Reform MPs have only taken part in 30 per cent of the 210 defence related debates and questions in parliament since the 2024 election.
But even with Wg Cdr McIntyre’s appointment, Reform is yet to name a full time defence spokesperson or give any of their MPs responsibility for leading on the issue.
Mr Farage had been described as the party’s defence spokesperson by deputy leader Richard Tice in June. But he has only taken part in 10 defence debates and questions in parliament since the election, with nine of those about the future of the Chagos Islands and Sir Keir Starmer’s attempts to hand over sovereignty of them to Mauritius.
Reform sources have said there have been ongoing concerns about Mr Farage’s “lack of interest” in defence.
The late Reform spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe was understood to have been working on a paper on the Royal Navy for the party but was struggling to get it published before her alleged murder.
Reform had been looking for a senior general to do the defence spokesman job but had failed to land anyone, The Independent understands.
One name attached to the position was retired rear admiral Chris Parry who was Reform’s mayoral candidate for Hampshire and the Solent before he was forced out after he was accused of being racist in social media posts about former deputy prime minister David Lammy.
The Tories have questioned how Reform plans to hold the government to account without a defence spokesperson in parliament.
Tory shadow armed forces and veterans minister Mark Francois said: “We recognise Wg Cdr McIntyre is a veteran and therefore we thank him for his service. However, he is not a parliamentarian, so clearly he cannot hold MoD ministers to account at the despatch box, or in debate, which is a job for the real shadow defence team.”
