Nigel Farage: If I can't give young men a voice, wait till what comes after me

Times

a day ago

When Nigel Farage became an MP on his eighth attempt, he said it would kickstart a 'revolt against the establishment'.
Almost 12 months on, with Reform UK riding high in the polls, he is planning his next coup: tearing down the whole parliamentary system.
'I love the [House of Commons] building. I love the history. I respect the Speaker as a human being but I find that the way the place does business just ridiculous,' he said. 'I do think that there's a better way of doing things. I've always believed that you can combine tradition with modernity.'
Sitting in his unofficial office of Boisdale of Belgravia over a 'proper f***ing lunch' of lamb and kidney pudding and claret, Farage, 61, spoke for the first time about his plans for power.
The political earthquake he had long been promising has hit. YouGov's first seat by seat poll since Labour's election victory was published last week, suggesting Reform is on track to gain 266 seats — up from five last July — making it the largest party in a hung parliament with 271 MPs. Farage's first cabinet would consist of people who had never been an MP, let alone had any experience of government.
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So how would he form a government capable of delivering?
'How could we do worse?' he asked. 'I mean, we currently appoint cabinet ministers with zero experience of the areas. We swap them out after 18 months for somebody else with zero experience of the areas. None of it bloody works.'
He agrees with assertions by Simon Case, the former cabinet secretary, that politicians have 'less and less direct levers of power than they used to' and this is 'not sustainable'.
'Most of the authority is being transferred to regulatory authorities and quangos who make the real decisions, it seems, that affect people's lives,' he says. 'I think we're stuck with a completely outdated mentality. The government has to be in the House of Commons. Why? I'll tell you why. Accountability.'
Farage is a close friend of President Trump and believes he deserves to win the Nobel peace prize for his recent work in the Middle East. He is attracted to the way politics is done in America, where the president is able to appoint his own cabinet, rather than having to choose from a pool of elected politicians. Appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.
'The point about America is that you can have a senior cabinet position and you are held to account by a committee system that takes place on Capitol Hill and that is the equivalent of being in a court of law,' he said. 'That's accountability. Standing up in the House of Commons and telling a pack of lies, frankly, is not accountability.
'It's almost impossible for cabinet ministers to be good MPs anyway, because how could they be? What was interesting was Gordon Brown. Digby Jones is a character that I like very much and Brown made Digby business minister and chucked him in the House of Lords.'
This is not the only thing Farage appears to agree with the former Labour prime minister on. Like Brown, who has advocated the creation of a second democratic chamber called the Assembly of Nations and Regions, he is in favour of reforming the House of Lords, which he thinks will 'have to have an elected element based on the regions'.
'The make-up of the Lords is a bloody disgrace,' he said. 'I mean they're all from three postcodes. At least the hereditaries came in from around the country … but I do think a revising chamber is important … All of this needs to be thought through and debated more clearly.'
As Farage sketches out his blueprint for power, it is easy to forget his decision to stand as an MP last year was far from a given. Despite his huge surge in popularity after his stint in ITV's I'm a Celebrity, he had still not decided whether to return to politics and admits Rishi Sunak's decision to hold an early general election nearly 'wrong-footed' him.
'I thought at that point, well this is hopeless,' he said. 'Because there's no way in this space of time I can do what needs to be done. And be honest with you, I was very despondent because I thought I'm just turning 60. Another five years and it will be too late.'
In the days after the election was called, Farage, who has more TikTok followers than the other 649 MPs added together, hit the campaign trail in Dover, before joining Lee Anderson in Ashfield and Richard Tice in Boston & Skegness. 'As I'm walking through Skegness, people are stopping me in the street saying, 'Why aren't you standing? Like you're letting me down. I believe in you,' ' he said.
'We had a curry that night somewhere in Gainsborough. That's when I started thinking this is terrible. All the people that love me think I'm betraying them. On the Saturday we got back to London and there were a lot of football supporters in the pub wanting selfies. And that's when I just thought, 'You know what, even if I've only got four weeks and three days to do it, let's give it a go.''
Shortly after 4am on July 5, Farage promised to 'change politics for ever' as his party won more than four million votes, propelling him into parliament as the MP for Clacton. 'I was delighted, of course I was,' he said. 'But I realised within a week that actually the real challenge was May 1, 2025 [the local elections]. How the hell were we going to get this organisation ready to fight on such a big scale?'
Reform UK were the biggest winners of that night, snatching more than 40 per cent of the 16,000 council seats contested, taking control of eight local authorities from the Tories and defeating Labour in the Runcorn & Helsby by-election to make Sarah Pochin its fifth MP.
Farage is prouder of his achievements on May 1 than July 4. He is hoping to build on that at next year's elections, which will include the Welsh senedd and Scottish parliament.
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He puts some of his party's meteoric rise in the polls down to societal breakdown and the 'complete unrecognisability of people's communities' and also blames the Covid lockdowns fuelling anti-establishment anger.
'I think what the [Conservative] government did was the biggest peacetime mistake in history,' he said. 'The economic damage, the societal damage, the damage to children in particular. It's changed our behaviour. It's also bred a mentality of work from home, which is utterly catastrophic for productivity. And frankly, I thought the third lockdown was on the verge of criminal. I left the country. I got out. I went through the West Indies and into America for two months. I couldn't bear it. Police kept knocking on my door because I kept ignoring it.
'I think governments have taken away more liberties than we took away during the Second World War. I mean that's completely abhorrent. The frustration that nobody's ever held accountable. I didn't want Matt Hancock telling me telling me: 'Stay at home, that's an order.' I wanted to break the television.
'You sort of always think, well, this country could never fall for totalitarianism. Well, it did. I actually think it did. It worries the life out of me.'
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He is amused at how much his party, with five MPs, is able to make waves. 'We're shifting the agenda on everything. We go very public that Palestine Action has to be a proscribed organisation — within 24 hours they do it. I've been very big on industrial policy. Guess what? I mean, they're literally following everything we do.'
However much Labour and the Tories seek to ape his party's policies, Farage claims there is still much which sets them apart. Last week Reform announced it would give non-doms the chance to avoid some UK taxes by paying a £250,000 fee, with the proceeds going to people on the lowest income. This week his party is likely to oppose Labour's welfare reform cuts, which the Conservatives have said they will support with conditions. He is keen to exploit the 'big tensions' within the Labour Party because he claims it no longer knows what the working class is.
'It's become the party of the bourgeoisie, very middle class,' he said. 'Middle class with those on benefits are your Labour vote. And the struggling working people are turning to us increasingly and we recognise that, we know that, we understand that. That tremor only gets stronger in my view.'
He is also keen to capitalise on the failure of successive governments to stop the migrant boats crossing the Channel. 'This hasn't even started,' he said. 'When the population makes the connection between these young men and increased sexual crime, when that connection is made, you wait.'
Farage claims the only answer to the problem is 'nobody that ever comes to this country via that route will ever be given asylum status, will ever be able to walk the streets free and will ever be allowed to stay'.
He sees huge merit in Operation Sovereign Borders — the policy adopted by Tony Abbott, the former Australian prime minister, in his 2013 election campaign. Migrant boats were intercepted and either returned to where they travelled from or passengers taken to overseas island detention centres.
'The ultimate threat is you literally tow the boats back to France,' said Farage, who would engage the navy 'if it came to it'. 'Do you think the Royal Marines would worry about doing that? They'd bloody love it.'
This would have to be underpinned by a massive deportation operation that Farage admits is not without its challenges and would mean leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). He said: 'I think the whole judicial system is rotten to the core and not working … I think you would firstly take away the tools that they're given through the ECHR and then see how they behave.'
He is also keen to shake up the NHS — often seen as the sacred cow that evades reform. He is meeting with some 'very high-up NHS people' to discuss what needs to change, having previously suggested he is open to re-examining the funding model. 'The British population are ready for a change of conversation on this,' he said. 'It's absolutely clear that we have to have some elements of competition in it.'
He also believes the public are in a completely different place from Westminster over net zero — the 'next Brexit'. He is keen to revisit the fracking debate to reduce energy costs and believes drilling could start within the first 18 months of a Reform government. 'Energy is absolutely key to our future,' he said. 'It's really interesting that the American economy was exactly the same size as the eurozone in 2008. It is now double. The shale gas revolution for America has been absolutely enormous.'
Farage understands he will have to take on many of the vested interests. 'Of course we are going to have some terrible fights,' he said. 'In particular we are going to have to take on the teaching unions … The indoctrination that's happening in our schools is shocking. Kids who support me get kicked out the classroom.'
Farage has been careful to distance himself from Tommy Robinson, the right-wing criminal, at the expense of Elon Musk's support. However, he has previously praised the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and expressed wider concerns that diversity and inclusion policies are discriminating against men.
'I'm not in Andrew Tate's camp, but I see why he's doing well,' he said. He hopes young men will turn to him to give them a voice 'because if I don't, you wait till what comes after me'.
He added: 'Those who try to demonise me could be in for a terrible shock once I'm gone. That's why we say we believe that we are the last chance to restore confidence in the democratic system, to change things.'
Farage — relatively young compared with the current crop of world leaders — says he is pushing an 'old-fashioned agenda'.
'I think the values thing is underestimated,' he said. 'That sense of safety and security; the sense of knowing where you are. As I came into London in June last year to announce my comeback into this malarkey, I think about the sort of phraseology that came out of that press conference, which we've maintained: family, community, country. I think that resonates quite a lot.
'I think these values are vital and I think if those values break down then we'll risk being in big trouble and there is such a thing as society, there really is.'
Farage is a lucky general. He has had four brushes with death, including walking away from a plane crash almost unscathed. 'The biggest single factor in all of our lives is luck,' he said. 'Right now, I feel pretty lucky and that I might just be in the right place at the right time.'