“There is big change sweeping the world, Trump is symptomatic of that change. And we’re very excited about things. Tell me a British insurgency that’s got to this level, this fast. There has never been one.”
Nigel Farage is fighting fit, looking down on Westminster from Reform UK’s smart new high-rise office, just as his insurgent party is looking down on the establishment from the top of national opinion polls for the first time. The party’s prospects look as bright as the leader’s Union jack tie.
We met this week with Farage fresh back from a prime seat at Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington DC. So how was it? “Mega. The feeling of optimism was remarkable. He himself was in the form of his life. I couldn’t believe it when the Village People came on, and there he was, dancing. It was one of the most powerful, uplifting speeches we’ve heard from a Western leader since—I can’t think how long. The decisive action with all the orders that he signed. And polling says that over 50% of the British people think he’s doing the right thing by closing the border.”
For Farage, it’s personal too. “Of course I was on my own supporting Trump in 2016! Well, an awful lot of people have joined that train now. Things will change here. I think the scrapping of the DEI culture, the return to meritocracy, it’s crossing the Atlantic and soon… and I can’t wait.”
That inauguration speech announced powerful policies that turned Washington politics on its head. If we do get Prime Minister Farage soon, what might be the equivalent policy bombshells?
“The No 1 is of course we’re going to get our sovereignty back, by not being part of the European Convention on Human Rights”—the convention that, even post-Brexit, still allows European judges to overrule the elected UK parliament on immigration law.
“We would obviously make immediate statements of intent—stopping the boats, getting rid of DEI, WHO funding scepticism, increasing defence spending. But sadly, I couldn’t move as quickly as President Trump. We couldn’t just sign a presidential order. Getting change through Parliament would depend on if we had a majority and what size it was.”
The “blob” that dominates UK institutions means “the obstacles in our way would be considerable. The educational establishment and much of Whitehall would be against us. I can see threats of civil service strikes. They are already threatening to strike for the right to work from home, or work from Spain or wherever. These will be real battles.”
“But if you have a mandate from the people to reduce the size of the state, then reduce the size of the state you must. I’m obviously hoping that Elon [Musk] puts his mind to the DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] task because if they can cut the administrative state in America, it would be a great blueprint for us.”
These issues point to the fact that the threat to democracy comes, not from a populist revolt from below with parties such as Reform, but from the establishment forces above.
“This is really what Tony Blair set in train all those years ago,” says Farage. “The extent to which the British parliament and the prime minister, their real powers to change things have been transferred to the judges, the unelected quangos. I think we need to replace Blair’s Human Rights Act 1998 with an updated bill of rights. The romantic constitutionalists always go on about the historic Bill of Rights, it doesn’t mean anything, government can ignore it. Having an unwritten constitution might have served us well for centuries, but it poses great dangers now.”
Farage’s biggest battle for British democracy was winning the referendum to leave the EU and making Brexit happen. Today is the fifth anniversary of Brexit Day, when we celebrated together down the road in Parliament Square. How does he assess Brexit now?
“There have been some benefits. In foreign policy we’ve been able to steer our own course more effectively, growth in our trade with the rest of the world has been encouraging, our ability to produce vaccines, indeed our ability to avoid Trump’s tariffs on the EU if it comes to that. Brussels taking a very negative view of advances in tech and AI puts us in an advantageous position, their instinct is to regulate everything beyond comprehension.
“But unfortunately, we’ve had Conservative governments which have not taken us away from Single Market rules. [Now Tory leader] Kemi Badenoch is top of that tree, she could have got rid of 4,000 EU rules under the last Conservative government, she chose not to. That makes it much easier for Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves to keep us continually aligning with new EU laws.
“Labour is now talking about some single market alignment, and I’m worried that Starmer may be taking us towards a European Defence Union. By the end of this parliament, a lot of the key arguments from the 2016 referendum, about taking control, could come back to the fore. We can say Brexit’s not been honoured by either Labour or Conservative governments.
“Because no, we’ve never had a government that believed in Brexit. That’s become clear about the Conservatives. I forced them to have the referendum in the first place [through the success of his UK Independence Party]. Then I helped get rid of the Remainer PM Mrs. May [after Farage’s Brexit Party won the 2019 European elections].
“Then I stood aside at the 2019 general election and helped Boris Johnson get a massive majority. And I feel as betrayed as everybody else. They didn’t believe in Brexit. Boris… maybe on a good day?
“But when it comes to the big one, taking action on the massive population increase, the break-up of communities, the Tories didn’t believe in that. They’ve given us record migration. And I think people are really angry.
“Can you believe that of the last three million people that came in from outside the EU, only 22% are working? Can you believe there are 600,000 illegal immigrants in London? The population’s risen by 10m in 20 years, and you wonder why you can’t get a doctor’s appointment, your kids can’t get a house.”
Solution? “We would fully understand people come and go—get jobs abroad, retire abroad, our companies want to employ other people here. That’s all fine. But we would aim to have Net Zero—on migration! Overall, not to have population growth through migration, we can’t afford it.”
Could we see a naval blockade to stop the boats, like Trump sending the military to the US border? “In practical terms it would be difficult. You could use the Royal Marines to pick people up in the Channel and dump them back on French beaches; that would be popular, yes, and cause a big diplomatic incident. But I think the first thing you have to do is change the law, get rid of the ECHR.
“Then the second thing you do, once the law is on side, is start deporting people, back to Afghanistan, Syria, or wherever. And I think you’d find it would end very, very quickly. I mean, in Australia, it took two weeks. They had tried everything to stop illegal migration. In the end, under Tony Abbott’s government, they towed a few boats back to Indonesia—done.”
Reform has also proposed an Australian-style points system to decide who might qualify for legal immigration. “But the Australian points system was not meant to be a free-for-all—you go to Australia, you’ve got to pay your own healthcare, have all the right insurances.”
Another battle which “we’re going to fight” is Net Zero. “Through the EU commitment to Net Zero, expanded by UK governments, we’ve got a policy of deindustrialisation in Britain. Manufacturing prices for electricity are six times higher than in America. I had one of our biggest builders in to see me today, says it’s now cheaper to import bricks from Belgium than manufacture them here.
“And this headlong rush, by a political class who don’t believe in God anymore but they do believe in climate science, it makes no sense and it’s leaving us incredibly vulnerable. If the lights do go out it will just prove how bloody stupid these people are. Although, if it’s in a cold snap goodness knows what repercussions it would have.
“But our demand for electricity is going to double in the next 15 years, because of advances in tech and AI. And I don’t see outside of nuclear where it’s going to come from. Nuclear has to be the long-term solution.”
Short-term, however, we still need fossil fuels—yet the Labour government and the courts seem determined to stop Britain exploiting its North Sea reserves. “Last week on some days, 60% of our electricity was coming from gas, and over half of that’s imported. Why would you import oil and gas when you can extract it here? I think these commonsense arguments are cutting through. And no doubt the Conservatives will say, ‘me too, me too.’ But you’re the ones that put this Net Zero into law in the first place!”
With “commonsense arguments” gaining traction, Reform is charging in the polls, up to well over 20% after winning 14% of the vote in last July’s election (though the UK electoral system meant that only translated to five MPs, led by Nigel). “Yes, it’s been amazing. The perception is growing now that it’s not a wasted vote. And 20% of the rise in support is from people who did not vote at the last election. There’s a lot more of that to come.” I say I saw this firsthand on the doorstep in Farage’s Clacton constituency, where in deprived areas such as Jaywick Sands, he was getting enthusiastic support from people who’d never voted before. “Exactly.”
Meanwhile a boom in membership has seen Reform overtake the Tory Party. Farage held up his phone to show me the constantly ticking numbers, up to more than 186,000 and counting. “Our aim of course is to keep that going and to build the expectation of success.”
What is the key to Reform’s impact? “I think it’s because we’re so positive. I think our message of family, community, country, this is what we stand for, we do believe the country can be turned around. The fish rots from the head down. We’ll give you different people to run the country who are not all part of the Oxbridge political class. We can do this.
“And in contrast to our positivity there’s Labour doing very badly; the PM not looking like he’s enjoying it, the chancellor completely out of her depth. We’re in recession. You wait, the next set of figures will back me up. They have almost talked us into it. Confidence is on the bloody floor. And the Tories, I don’t even know what they stand for. On anything.”
But Farage is adamant that Reform is now a movement, much more than a protest against the old parties. “People don’t join political parties in large numbers just to stick two fingers up. You come to a Reform meeting like our conference in Birmingham, it’s like a bloody rock concert, the levels of optimism, people having enormous fun. There are a lot more young people getting involved, though there’s a lot more to do there.” Farage and his youthful team of social media warriors are taking that fight to TikTok, with remarkable success.
Every recent scandal and cover-up from the rape gangs to the Southport murders has reinforced Reform’s message. “The abuse I got over Southport! But I was right, wasn’t I? The killer was known to the authorities. They tried to cover it up, and it’s like the cat’s out of the bag, people aren’t believing any of this rubbish anymore.”
With the establishment out to condemn all criticism as ‘far-right’ extremism, and to control discussion online on the pretext of combating “disinformation,” I suggest that free speech will be a big battle in the coming period. “That’s why I like Elon so much. We’re great advocates of free speech, and we’ve been victims of cancel culture for daring not to be part of the Establishment cover-up.”
Mention of Musk meant I had to ask Nigel about their apparent falling out over Farage’s refusal to back the imprisoned agitator Tommy Robinson. Happening at a time when a big Musk donation to Reform was rumoured, it forced Farage to make clear that his principles are “not for sale.” “That’s right, I don’t get pushed around. But we’re talking, we’re talking. We’re on the same side basically but we might have different interpretations of some things. He’s unusual in every way.”
What about the EU, five years after Brexit? “Buggered. It’s had it. I think respect for the EU around the world is pretty low, I think von der Leyen’s a bit of a joke figure. And the Parliament! God they must be missing me. When I was there it was on the news all over Europe. Now I don’t know who anybody is.”
He laughs about Donald Tusk, the Brexit-hating ex-President of the EU Council, who is now Poland’s PM. “He’s got armed police on the border! No one that gets through can get refugee status! Governments are all just doing their own thing. The EU’s credibility’s on the floor. The nation state is reasserting itself.
“I think the interesting one is Italy. You know, Georgia Meloni gains power, we’re all told Mussolini’s back, she’s unfit for office. And she seems to have brought remarkable stability to Italy. She’s fighting the ECJ pretty hard, actually doing something about migration. I’m very impressed.
“What’s odd is I think, where are the patriotic parties of the left? There’s one in Germany. But why is it just parties deemed to be on the right that are worried about sovereignty? Since when was sovereignty a left- or right-wing issue?
“With open door migration crushing wages, crushing living standards, I think we will see new parties that are more leftwards economically.” Might that be no bad thing, if it challenges the old elites? “I think it would be a very good thing”.
Back in Britain, Labour has suggested some local elections due on May 1st could be postponed. “Can you believe that? They’re going to cancel elections. Millions will be denied a vote.” No doubt it is just a coincidence that the threat of electoral cancellations comes at a time and in places where Reform is advancing.
“We have been going full speed for six months to try to build branches, vet candidates, running so fast we can barely draw breath. But I promised two things that night I was elected MP in Clacton: that I’d professionalise the party and I’d democratise the party.
“The professionalisation is happening, you can feel it here in the office, there’s a different vibe. The money’s beginning to come.” (Nigel had earlier outlined his WFH policy: “If you want to work from home, fine – you can **** off.”) “And on the democratisation side, I’ve managed to pass a new party constitution, there are a lot of other changes happening. So, I think I kept my promises.”
You sense that the formalities of parliament may not always suit Farage the political fighter. But he says there are “good moments,” such as when the mother of British-Israeli Emily Damari, held hostage by Hamas terrorists since October 7th, came to Westminster. “I was the only party leader that really stood up and publicised Emily’s case. I was even on TikTok saying, ‘Do you know there’s a British hostage?’ It’s almost like people were embarrassed about it. I got the most lovely letter from her mum Mandy. When Emily was released, I felt very emotional. When Emily’s settled, she’s going to come and see me for a beer.”
“I’m far too old to be doing this,” claims Farage, now a mere 60, as our conversation concludes. “It’s 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. every day, pretty full on.” I observe that he has long been famed for his irrepressible energy and staying power. “Yeah, I have—I’m feeling it more now than I used to.” You wouldn’t know it.
After years of fighting the good fight, Nigel Farage now finds himself arguably the most popular political leader in Britain, closer to power than many of his fearful enemies ever thought possible. “People know me. I’ve never really wavered very much. Now, it doesn’t mean it can’t all go wrong, it’s called life, it’s snakes and bloody ladders. But no, it feels very exciting. Very real.”
