Why ‘grifter’ has become the go-to political insult of 2025 | Anoosh Chakelian

These days it's not enough to disagree with opponents - it seems we have to accuse them of being con artists too

Our world is full of grifters. Or so it seems, considering how often that word is thrown around in public life these days.

This year alone, Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP and founder of a new left party with Jeremy Corbyn, called the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, a billionaire-backed grifter" (perhaps borrowing from the language of Coutts staff who referred to him as a disingenuous grifter" when his bank account was closed two years ago). Sultana, in turn, was accused of being a grifter" duping honest socialists" by the journalist Paul Mason.

Anoosh Chakelian is Britain editor of the New Statesman