Nigel Farage's speech at the Birmingham NEC

Good afternoon, Birmingham. Well, here we are. Reform UK meeting in Birmingham. There's joy, there's optimism, there's humour, there's great belief that we can turn this country around, and yes, there are fireworks and we enjoy ourselves, but spare a thought. Spare a thought for Downing Street this afternoon, where the curtains are drawn and the political life of the most unpopular and most useless Prime Minister in living memory is drawing to a close.

The Mandelson saga tells you all that you need to know. Its depth, the numbers of people it involves, he sheer level of corruption it's probably the biggest political scandal we've seen for 100 years. And it's not as if the Prime Minister wasn't warned. Everyone knew that the bloke was a wrong'un.

So McSweeney, in the short term, has carried the can, as you might have heard when you arrived, the Scottish leader and Anas Sarwar has called on him to go. The cabinet are coming out one by one being loyal, because none of them want to appear to be the person that wields the knife, and he has to meet the backbench Labour Party at 6pm this evening, where I expect the conversation will be of a rather franker nature.

He won't be there for long. He'll be gone and replaced by somebody undoubtedly far worse.

It took the Conservatives 14 years. 14 long years of disaster to get into the mess they did, and this mob have managed it within the space of 18 months. I suppose you've got to admire it, really.

But either way, what we do know is there is now a very clear dividing line in British politics. Keir Starmer says the country is not broken. Kemi Badenoch says the country is not broken. And we say, and 74% of the public agree with us in opinion polls, we say Britain is broken and Britain needs reform.

It doesn't matter where you look. It doesn't matter where you look. Just look at our public services. The NHS, just as one example, it's literally impossible for the NHS to cope with the level of population explosion that has happened in this country over the course of the last 20 years, and I can scarcely believe that now we are offshoring the NHS. Outsourcing the NHS.

You could get a telephone zoom consultation from a doctor on a beach in Malaysia. Don't ever let the Labour Party say that Reform want to privatise the NHS whilst they're outsourcing the NHS, whilst at the same time putting a cap on the number of students who qualify as doctors and nurses every year, complete and utter madness.

And of course, our borders are completely broken. And this, I think in many ways, represents the greatest breach of trust between the governors and the governed.

You think of it, the 2010 manifesto from the Conservatives, the 2015 manifesto from the Conservatives, the 2017 manifesto from the Conservatives, promising to reduce net migration to 10s of 1000s a year. And then in 2019 a Boris majority. Brexit done. Every reason to believe we get a grip. And then we got the Boriswave, with net up to 1 million people coming in a single year, most of whom are not bringing the kind of skills and support that our country needs.

And frankly, whether it's immigration or anything else, the Conservatives were a disaster. They broke Britain, and all that Starmer and Labour are doing is making the situation worse, and the same comes for illegal immigration. Just think about it. How could it be in our interests to allow nearly 200,000 undocumented young males into our country? And that is what has happened under both the Conservatives and Labour and now more people have arrived by boat under Starmer than did under any other prime minister.

Our borders are broken. Our economy is broken. No one dares admit it. The national debt increased two and a half times in 14 years of Conservatives and is now absolutely totally out of control under what I think, despite the CV - she's got a good CV that Rachel Reeves - 10 years the senior economist at the Bank of England!

Do you know what she is, the most useless Chancellor in our history and an embarrassment to us on the world stage. She clearly hasn't got a clue what she's doing.

As our debt explodes, as our welfare bill goes through the roof, business confidence sinks, and I particularly want to mention small business. There are 5.6 million men and women out there engaged in their own enterprises who frankly, feel persecuted by both of the last two governments, and we are the party that's on the side of alarm clock Britain. We're the party on the side of people who want to get up run their businesses, have a go and believe you, me, I think those self-employed and small businesses will vote Reform at the next election. Frankly, there is nobody else who even understands what they do, because almost no one in politics has ever had a proper job, and that is going to change.

We are, we are de-industrialising at a rate of knots. Heavy manufacturing, heavy engineering, shipbuilding, cement making, chemicals, steel. You can go through the long list. It's all gone off to India and China, and then the very same goods are exported back here, and we're doing it in the name of net zero.

We're doing it in the name of saving the planet, despite the fact the goods that are offshored are produced to lower environmental standards and then shipped all the way back.

It's incredible. In 2010 we spent £6 billion importing energy from overseas. In 2024 we spent £36 billion importing energy from overseas. We are taxed at the highest level we've been since the war, and many, many people, not just the rich, but many bright young ambitious people, are leaving our country in what is now approaching an exodus. Our economy is broken.

And have a look at our politics that is well and truly broken. Well you can see how broken the Labour government is, but think of the four years of endless psychodrama the last Conservative government put us through. Too busy fighting each other to even consider standing up and fighting for the voters and the people of this country.

We have a Prime Minister who is not a leader, and things are changing on both the centre right and the centre left. For all of our lifetimes, we have understood that there was a two-party system that led to government in Britain, and I can say today for the first time, the two-party system we've known all of our lives is now Over. It's gone. It's consigned to history.

Reform has broken the mould of British politics, something Roy Jenkins tried to do 40 years ago and failed. We have broken the mould. That's what we've led in the last 200 opinion polls. And I must tell you that I approach May 7th and those elections in Scotland, in Wales, in all 32 London boroughs and thousands of seats up and down the country, I now approach May 7th with a growing sense of optimism every single day. I really do.

And so broken is our politics, they've even started cancelling elections. I thought only banana republics cancelled elections. Well, I will be in the High Court on the 19th and 20th of February, when we fight the government at judicial review, not just the elections this year, but to think that in the case of Norfolk, of Suffolk, of East and West Sussex, if this goes ahead, it will be the second year in a row that elections have been cancelled. We go into that court fight with every reason to think that we are going to upstage the establishment and that we are going to win and re-enfranchise 5 million people.

A number of people in those counties, particularly those for the second year in a row, have now started cancelling their direct debits and standing orders for their council tax. They are doing so on the basis of no taxation without representation. Now, of course, I could not possibly, we couldn't possibly support such action. But do you understand? I'm sure you'd feel the same way. We're going to do something about it.

Now, if Sir Keir - or whoever follows you - and Kemi, if you don't believe Britain is broken, I tell you what, come here to Birmingham, because Birmingham is well and truly broken.

The city is bust and of course, much of it caused by a piece of EU law written into the Equalities Act. As the rubbish piles up on the streets it is said there are rats here today, the biggest that have been seen since the Western Front many years ago.

And sectarian politics is now here, alive and well in what we've always known as Britain's second city. People now voting purely on religious grounds. There's even a candidate standing in Birmingham who's a former convicted terrorist.

But, this is all thought, apparently, to be okay, and this egged on and encouraged by a police force who, when they banned the travelling Israeli football fans did so simply because they were Jewish. That is what Birmingham has sunk to: a de-industrialised city that used to be the workshop of the world, slayed at the altar of net zero and the highest industrial energy prices in the world.

Birmingham is broken. Birmingham needs reform. And I dare say, on May 7th, Birmingham is going to get Reform.

Now unless you face up to the facts that Britain is broken, unless you're prepared to be honest enough to accept the depth of trouble that we're in, you can't begin to even contemplate what the actions needed to rectify it are, and that, I believe, is what gives us, above all, our biggest advantage over our competitors, who've still got their heads very, very firmly tucked in the sand.

They somehow think that you can fiddle with the boiler, replace a couple of spare parts, and it'll all be okay. And we say, no, we need a brand new boiler and not a heat pump. We need a completely brand new system.

So Britain is broken. Britain does need reform, and Reform will fix it. We've got the character, the attitude, the mindset, the optimism, the belief, nothing will stop us from doing it. We will fix it period.

We will stick to our fundamental principles. We will stick to the slogan that summarises why we are and what we are. Our priorities are: family, community and country, and we care about those things, frankly, to the exclusion of all else. Because if we do and we respect the Judeo Christian principles which underpin the entirety of our civilization, if we understand those things, respect those things, then we can proceed with people in position and with policies that will all be based around one political theme, and that political theme is national interest. We will act in the national interest and of its people at every given opportunity, regardless of criticism.

We will no longer kowtow to the European Union or unelected European commissioners. We will no longer even listen to illegitimate United Nations courts like the ICJ, who with the judge from Russia and China, have persuaded our prime minister to give away - no sorry, not to give away - to pay, to hand over the strategically important Chagos islands. We will not be listening to courts like that. In the future, we'll be acting in our own national self-interest.

And we won't do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party in the shameful way that this Prime Minister, this government and many of its officials do. Did you see after his visit to Beijing that today British citizen and democracy rights campaigner, Jimmy Lai has been given a further 20 years in prison. Starmer doesn't negotiate. Starmer doesn't stand up for the interests of British people, of whom Jimmy Lai is one. He surrenders at every twist and turn.

And we will end DEI in our public sector. Get rid get rid of two tier policing, of two tier justice. We will because we're firm. We're determined. We don't mind what abuse we're going to get. We will stop the rot, and we'll do it because the national interest demands that we do just as it demands that we abolish this insane net zero agenda. It's going to go under us.

And we will get the North Sea operating again. We'll get rid of the ludicrous taxation that Jeremy Hunt and the Conservatives put on and Rachel Reeves made worse.

Whether you like it or not, we will be using oil and gas until at least 2050 so in that case, why not simply produce our own? It makes sense. It's in the national interest. We will look to countries like South Korea who were able to do nuclear energy with no concessions on safety for a quarter of the cost that it does our bungling idiots in government. We'll produce oil and gas. We'll build nuclear energy because, frankly, we're going to need it, not just for existing manufacturing, what's left of it, but think of the 21st century technologies. And by the way, we're the only party really thinking about this. Think about AI. Think about data centres. Think about the world of crypto, which isn't going away. To be engaged in that you need more energy than we've ever, ever, ever produced in our histories. We must, and we have to be ready for that, because it is in the national interest.

And we will do everything in the national self-interest to try and produce as much food as we can in this country and not allow our farmers to be bought out by those biodiversity deserts of solar farms. Let's produce food and get rid of all the solar farms. Simple as.

And while we're on security, Starmer's hideous 11-year surrender of much of our fishing to European countries has been a hammer blow to coastal communities all over this country, and we will take back what is rightfully ours. Give our fishing industry a chance to live and thrive.

It's all about putting our own people first and in our national interest, we must stop extreme teaching unions poisoning the minds of our kids, we've got to stop this happening.

We will ensure there is a patriotic, balanced historical agenda that our children learn, and we will also recognise that not everybody is fit to go to university to do an -ology. That actually, in the modern world of AI, people with trades and skills are not going to get replaced by computers. So from the age of 16 boys and girls should at school be able to start learning trades and skills that will last them for their entire lives.

But we have to start making money. The country is going bust. We're caught in a trap where there are many at work who would actually be better off on welfare, and we will have to cut the welfare budget. Not everybody will like it. But, you know, I'm sorry, but mild anxiety, I mean, after a heavy night out, I have mild anxiety.

You can't go on the sick because you've got mild anxiety. But it is an attitudinal change that Britain needs. An attitudinal change to hard work rather than work life balance, an attitudinal change to the idea of working from home, people aren't more productive working at home. It's a load of nonsense. They're more productive being with other fellow human beings and working as part of a team.

I want us to be the champions of ‘have a go Britain'. People setting up businesses, people having a go. They may succeed. They may not, but many will. And I'm pleased that Kevin Byrne, who was the founder of CheckATrade.com is going to be our mentor in helping us produce the right policies for millions more men and women to set up their own businesses and have the chance to make a big success of their lives. And I'm proud that we're going to do that.

But the Whitehall class don't get it. The Westminster class don't get it. They don't understand hard work. They don't understand business, and we do.

And the same goes for tax. Why would you want all the richest people who pay the most amounts of tax to leave the country? Because if you do that, it means the taxes that everybody else has to pay. Who's at work go up. It is the economics of jealousy. It is the economics of small mindedness. It is the economics of stupidity. And I want to reverse the exodus. I want the rich to come back and pay taxes here, I want to stop young, 30 something, ambitious people leaving our country.

And tax is part of it, but it's not all of it. One of the other reasons people are leaving London in such numbers is because of the near collapse of law and order. And it isn't just London, is it? It's the same in all of our cities.

And the academic experts will tell you that crime is falling. Is it hell. Whether it's phone thefts or frauds or sexual assaults or whatever it is, crime is getting worse, and that's why I'm very, very pleased that after all these years of Sadiq Khan, of London becoming lawless, the beginning with our campaign on the May 7th in the 32 boroughs, but heading on to the London mayoral elections in a couple of years time, our candidate is going to be vigilante mum Laila Cunningham, to bring back law and order to London.

And yes, we will control our borders. We will act in the national interest in terms of defence, in terms of waking up to the fact that our defences were shredded in 14 years of Conservative government, and despite all of Labor's promises, it isn't actually happening. And if we have to cut the welfare budget to make our defences stronger in a dangerous world, well then that is exactly what we are going to have to do. We can't defend ourselves right now. We need to be able to.

20 months ago, I took a very big and life changing decision. Having retired from politics, once we got Brexit over the line, I decided that I would come back into politics, and I did so because I believed that at that moment in time, I was the best person to lead the fightback against the shredding of all of the values and all of the good things that this country had stood for. I can't be bought, I can't be bullied. I've stood for the same principles for many, many decades.

I'm not doing this for my health. There are many other things in life I could be doing, but 18 months on, I believe even more strongly that I am the right person at this moment in time to lead this vital and historic movement. And I won't get everything right, but I will always lead with courage. If you can survive the snakes in I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. You can survive pretty much anything.

But of course, the criticism consistently has been you're not ready for the election because you're a one-man band. Well, that is all changing, and it's changed rapidly whilst we've had in the existing team, talent, hard work, ability and life experience. What we've lacked is experience in Number 10. What we've lacked is experience in government. What we've lacked is long term experience in Parliament. And that is why Nadine Dorries, Jake Berry, the Nadhim Zahawi, Danny Kruger, Andrew Rosindell, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman are very welcome in our camp, and we're delighted to see many of you here today.

That compliments enormously, what myself and David Bull, Zia Yusuf, Richard Tice, Sarah Pochin And of course, Lee Anderson have been doing already. Anyone from the outside can see we're now beginning to actually build a team of people. And I will also go on encouraging those from outside politics with expertise to join us, people like Colin Sutton, people like Vanessa Frake, and there are many, many more people out there who will answer the call because they realise just how much trouble our once great country is in.

The May 7th elections are crucial. They are our equivalent of the midterms, and I'm pleased that we've got the right leadership in Malcolm Offord in Scotland, Dan Thomas in Wales, and Laila Cunningham in London. We've got the right people.

I'm not going to wait until after May 7^th for the next phase, because things are moving rather quickly out there.

I will within the next few days, start to unveil the first people who will act as our spokesmen and act as our Shadow Cabinet ministers. That is coming in just a few days' time, and will represent yet more maturity for our party. I'm looking forward to that very, very much indeed.

I said here in September that I thought the general election would happen in 2027. Well, of course, I was mocked and ridiculed. I'm always mocked and ridiculed. Well, I stand by that, but it could come more quickly. This whole thing could just unravel. Starmer goes, the party moves to the hard left, there's a further exodus of capital, and people from the country, the bond markets lose confidence. I know Andy Burnham and the others say we're not worried about the bond market. Well, you may not be worried about the bond market, but the bond market is worried about you. So as of three o'clock today, on our website, reformparty.uk as of three o'clock today, I have opened the lists for people to apply to be general election candidates for this party.

And I do today, put this party on a general election war footing. We will make sure that when it comes whenever it is, that we are ready in every way to fight and to win that election.

And we're fighting because we believe that we want and need a proud, independent country that stands up on its own two feet, cherishes its past, but embraces its future. It's a place people want to come and live, a place people want to come and invest, a place where wealth and better living standards can be created.

We have been totally failed by the two-party system, totally failed by career politicians. I am putting together a team of people who will do much, much better than that and what I love about this party, about the events that we hold, is the optimism, the belief that we can do it, and you are our people's army, and without you, we can't do it, but I believe we can do it. Do you? I believe we can do it. Do you?

Thank you very much indeed, everybody.