Full transcript of Nigel Farage's speech to the Reform UK National Conference

We are all ships rising on a turquoise tide headed ever closer towards winning the next general election. 

It has been a day of some considerable news. It seems that female politicians are all the rage at the moment. We had our own very positive announcement overnight, of which you will hear more. But the reason that I've moved this speaking time forward is because this government is deep in crisis. Not only have they fallen into deep unpopularity within just a year of winning the general election, but it's become clear to all of us that it is a cabinet of wholly unqualified people to run our country: they are not fit to govern. 

I suppose we are lucky in one way, that at least the Chancellor was a senior economist at the Bank of England for 10 years and that the Business Secretary is a fully qualified solicitor, and that the Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, until half an hour ago, is an accomplished property developer and speculator, but you simply can't get away can you from being the Housing Secretary and avoiding £40,000 of council tax, and it screams to entitlement. It screams to a government that despite all the promises that this would be a new, different kind of politics is as bad, if not, worse than the one that went before. 

We're being told that right now, the Prime Minister is organising a reshuffle. Yet another reset, and that the names of the new Cabinet will come out later on this afternoon. Well, I did not want the Prime Minister to do anything to spoil our conference, and that is why I have come on the stage now to say they are not fit to govern. The Conservative Party are riven. In fact, Nadine Dorries said overnight, the Conservative Party are dead, deservedly so, and they will not be forgiven. They will not be forgiven for their betrayals over the course of the last five years, mass migrations, illegal immigrants crossing the Channel, sky high taxes and much else. 

But in the middle of this meltdown of these two parties that have dominated for 100 years, British politics, in the middle of all of this, there is a new, strong, unified party that speaks with one voice that knows it's determined to put the interests of Britain and the British people above that of outdated international treaties or dubious courts. We are the patriotic party. We are the party that stands up for decent working people, and we are the party on the rise. 

Just think, I stood before you this time last year, at this very conference, we only had a handful of branches around the country. We now have 450 branches that we have set in place. 

As we entered the general election of 2024 we had 30,000 paid up members. In the last hour, we've gone through 240,000 members. 

This time last year, we had very few councillors. Now we have over 900 and I've got to tell you last year, I said to all of you, May 1st is coming, volunteer to stand in the county elections. And even though the government cancelled the elections in nine of the counties that we would have won, we still won outright 10 county councils and became the largest party in three others. Unbelievable. 

And I'll be honest with you, as I toured around the country on May 2nd, I frankly myself, couldn't believe just how well we'd done. Couldn't believe the extent to which we caught the mood and the real icing on the cake, and it may only have been by six votes, but never let anyone tell you ever again that my vote doesn't count because it does. And we got Sarah potion elected in the Runcorn by election. 

We have topped over 100 of the last opinion polls. Our lead is between 10% and 15% against any of the other parties, and I tell you what, given the state of chaos they're in, I think we can increase that lead further yet, folks, it's happening. 

Now the next step, the next step is going to be even bigger, Scottish Parliament elections, Welsh Senedd elections, and indeed, a by election that will take place in Wales next month.  All 32 London boroughs will be up for election, and we will take that seriously as we get ready to have a mayoral candidate so that we can beat Sadiq Khan next time round. 

We are going to need up to 5000 vetted candidates to fight those elections next year, those elections next year are an essential building block as we head towards a general election. 

Now, talking of the general election, it's supposed to be in I know you want it now, but it's not going to come now. The next general election is not due until 2029 but let me tell you, it's all right. I'll cheer you up in a moment. Angela Rayner going not just as Housing Secretary, but also as elected deputy leader of the Labour Party and Deputy Prime Minister, means there will be an internal election in the Labour Party. Already they are facing the threat of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, that is, if the two could ever agree on anything, including the choice of a party name. 

But I put this to you, this battle for deputy leader of the Labour Party will be very like the battles they had back in the early 1980s the left of the Labour Party will rear its voice. We're used to hearing stories of splits in the Conservative Party. We're about to witness a big rift in the Labour Party too. And I think, I think if there is one really big message from me to this conference, I don't think, and the bond markets back me up, and the leftward drift backs me up, and before long, there'll be Labour MPs that reckon they've got a better chance on the Jeremy Corbyn sectarian ticket. Because frankly, folks, that's what's going on in our country, we have sectarian politics emerging. I loathe it. I loathe it. But there'll come a point when many MPs, Labour MPs, think they've got a better chance of being reelected under that ticket under Corbyn than they do under Sir Keir. I think there is every chance now of a general election happening in 2027 and we must be ready for that moment. 

Now we also as a party have to raise a lot of money, and we're making progress. Our treasurer, Charlton Edwards and his team are doing a great job. Our honorary treasurer, Nick Candy has personally already put in over half a million pounds of his own money. Nick we thank you for that, but I want you too in the branches to go out and work and raise money, to volunteer to be candidates, to deliver leaflets, to knock on doors. We need to be the party of activism, and I think all of us believe, don't we in what we're doing. So we must all play our part and do our bit. 

But one of the counter arguments, well, there are two. One is, is it a one man band? I went to the football shirt stand earlier, and there you've got 11 names, Jenkins, Tice, Pochin and so on. 11 of our most senior elected representatives and I stood in the middle and held up the shirt that said Farage, and the BBC asked me: am I a one man band? I said, look at this lot behind me. And one of the joys of this year has been seeing so many other senior Reform figures appearing on television, appearing on radio, writing articles for newspapers. We broaden the scope and fresh new people are coming in, people like Colin Sutton, the legendary detective heading up our Police and Crime Commission. People like Vanessa Frake, the toughest prison governor in the country, and many more talented people will come. And I do not believe that all governments have to be MPs in the House of Commons. That's the convention. But it doesn't work, does it? You appoint people to be a rail minister, an education secretary, who have no knowledge of the department they're supposed to run, and we will bring in a ministry of all the talents from all walks of life, and to hell with convention. 

But that brings me on to the other argument, where I will admit we have some weakness, and that is that none of our senior figures have ever been in government before, oh, we're beginning to see, already through the county councils, that we run certain obstructions from the civil service being put in our way. And I imagine if we win the next election, we may face similar barriers to the kinds of real change that this country needs. So we need experienced people. We need people who have been in government. We need people who understand just how the system works and what the difficulties are. We need people with experience. And that is why, after a lengthy debate and consultation. That is why I'm pleased to welcome today to the stage a woman who was served in cabinet as Culture Secretary, a woman who was sold three and a half million books, a woman who has been on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, somebody from the real world who's worked their way up, been incredibly successful, who actually crosses the boundaries from politician into celebrity, and I'm delighted that we're going to have the experience, the talent, the hard work and the loyalty of the Nadine Dorries, and I'm proud to welcome her onto the stage now. 

Again and again at elections, they talk the talk. They never walk the walk, but we mean what we say, and we will deliver that promise I make you. Now, Nadine is right, our country is in a very bad place. It's a mixture between anger and despair. Is it any wonder that the protests have sprung up outside the hotels. We are in economic decline. We are in societal breakdown with law and order. We are in cultural decline. It's as if our leaders have forgotten who we were, and we want to question it now, they will do everything they can to crush free speech online. 

We are not going to have this. Our country is, without doubt, in the most dangerous place it's been in my lifetime. And I get this in the street from people, people point at me and say, you are the last chance we've got to get this country back on track. We are the last chance the country has got to get this country back on track. And that is why, let's make Britain great again - I've heard that phrase somewhere else before - but I agree with it. And that is why, talking of flags, that is why, spontaneously, across the country, there is barely a lamp post now that does not have the Cross of St George or the Union Jack, and we love it. 

What is going on out there is the British people are sticking two fingers up with every flag they place to an establishment that doesn't believe in Britain, to an establishment that thinks more of the interests of other countries and foreign courts that it thinks about its own people, and those flags say we have had enough. 

We will make Britain safer again, beginning with zero tolerance policing. If you shoplift, you will be prosecuted. We will bring back genuine stop and search on our streets to drive out knives. We will  deport foreign criminals.

I am off to have lunch in a few weeks with the Prime Minister of Albania. I might book a very big plane and take a load with me. I am not sure yet. 

We will stop what is a threat to our national security, what is a danger to girls and women on our streets. We will stop the boats and we will detain and deport those who illegally break into our country doing what nearly every normal country around the rest of the world does. You cannot come here illegally and stay we will stop the boat within two weeks of winning government. 

And we will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country, quite why we have been so gutless about this, both Conservative and Labour, I do not know. All across the Middle East countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organization. We will do the very same.

And we will make Britain more prosperous again. Our energy policy, led by red Ed, is a complete and utter disaster. It's all well and good for Kemi Badenoch to say drill, baby drill. Who was it that put 75% super taxes on North Sea exploration? Who was it that committed Net Zero to law in this country? They should not be believed, they should not be listened to. We will scrap ridiculous, harmful, wasteful, Net Zero policies. We will start producing our own oil and gas. We will end, we will end the full subsidies for renewable energy, which has been going on your bills for years, yet no one told you. We will end Britain being the most expensive country in the world for industrial energy. We will bring cheap energy, and we will do our utmost to re industrialise Britain, to start making things here that we want and we need. 

We will save huge sums of wasted public money, as our DOGE unit has already begun to do in the county councils. We will do that, and we will over the course of the next months, outline some serious cuts to the welfare budget in this country. It is not fair. It is not fair on people that get up with their alarm every morning, go to work and pay their taxes for those that choose a different lifestyle to earn more money than they do. It is morally wrong. It is outrageous, and will be the party that backs working people. 

And will make London a center for digital assets and crypto currencies, bringing 1000s of jobs and taking us firmly as well as re industrialising into the 21st century technologies. But you cannot do that without lots of cheap energy. We are literally betraying anyone in Britain that wants to be part of the modern digital age. And we'll end this disastrous exodus, the rich are leaving. Some people think that is fine, but if the rich leave, if the biggest taxpayers leave, it means everybody else has to pay more. It doesn't make any sense. The politics of envy has never, ever worked. 

I don't want big taxpayers to leave, but equally, I don't want the young and the ambitious to leave, and they're leaving in droves. So we will make sure that people come back and see us as a place to be, and let's start teaching kids at school trades and services. You know, the one thing, the one thing that AI will not replace is the local plumber. They're going to make a fortune in the years to come. In fact, looking at the bills, I suspect some of them are already but most of all, we need to make Britain proud again. We've lost our sense of who we are. We refuse to acknowledge publicly the Judeo-Christian culture and heritage that we have, and that and that underpins everything that we are. 

We refuse to have our kids minds poisoned in schools and universities with a twisted interpretation of the history of these amazing islands. We will not stand for it. We will police the streets and not the tweets, and change all of that legislation that is damaging our rights so very, very much. 

And we will respect our armed forces, and in particular, our veterans, those who served in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, being hounded for things that happened 50 years ago that will end 

Now I've laid out, I've laid out just some of our and I don't apologise at all for the breadth of our ambition, because that's what this country needs. It needs hope. It needs belief. It needs to smile again. It needs to believe in who we are and that we can have a great future if we turn these things around. And I'm going, in order to get all these policies brought together under one roof, and it's a massive workload, I'm going to ask Zia Yusuf, from this day to be our Head of Policy, to bring all of this together. 

And I will in the next few weeks, open up a new department within the party, leaning on the experience that Nadine and others have, and others will come. Others with experience will come. Don't worry about that, and we will open a Department for Preparing for Government so that when we win, we can hit the ground running. 

I promised you a year ago, I would professionalise the party. Have a look around you. Have a look at this conference, having our team done just the most amazing job. I promised you I would democratise the party. I think the fact that 70,000 of you voted for our new board members was an incredible show that you believe in the party you wanted this democratisation. And all I can do is to promise you that I will give this everything. I will give this absolutely everything that I've got. No one cares more about the state of this country than I do. I am determined to do something about it. I came out last year, out of retirement to try and lead a movement that would get our country back. I think we're on track. I think we're on our way. I'm proud to lead this party, and I'm proud of you for the amazing contribution you've made to our success over the next year. 

But I tell you what, folks, that was just the beginning. Thank you very much indeed.