Transcript of Nigel Farage's speech in Doncaster

Nigel Farage today addressed a rally of party members in Doncaster

He said:

Good afternoon, Doncaster.

It's great to be back here at the racecourse. I am, of course, a big racing fan. And this venue known for the St Leger, above any other race, the first great classic of the season that's been run every year, well, nearly every year, since 1776. Just think of it. The race at this venue has been going on as long as the United States America has even existed. Better not tell my American friends that they won't like it.

Why have we chosen Doncaster? We've chosen Doncaster because this place, this proud historic city, that has given so much to this country over so many centuries, this place is synonymous with manufacturing.

It's places like Doncaster, where we have always made stuff. Always manufactured. Always produced high-skilled people, producing goods that were admired all over the world.

And yet today, the truth is, that is more of a legacy than it is a reality.

If Britain is broken, then I'm sorry, folks, but Doncaster is pretty broken, too, and it's time we did something about it.

Doncaster has the second highest crime rate in the whole of Yorkshire. But we're not supposed to talk about it. It is the second most heavily affected city in this country for soaring energy prices, and the insanity that Net Zero has imposed upon British manufacturing and prices of energy, both for factories and for consumers, the self inflicted wound whereby we believe, somehow alone, we'll stop the world, suffering from global warming. All we're doing is exporting CO2 emissions to India, to China, to the rest of the world.

And I'm going to say two things. Not only is enough enough, but that I've come here today with a very specific purpose.

Now, in the run up, to the May 7th, local elections, local elections in which we became the lead opposition party in Wales. Elections in which we became the joint opposition party in Scotland, elections in which we wiped out the Conservative Party in East Anglia.

Hang on, it gets better than that.

At elections in which we wiped out the Labour Party in the North of England, right across northern England.

I knew on the morning of May the 8th that Sir Keir Starmer was a goner. Making way for our new Prime Minister, the Messiah, without a mandate Andy Burnham.

I'm surprised, I was told he was the king of the North, but there we are.

Be in no doubt. that I am here to launch, believe it or not, today it begins here. I'm back on the road. I spent nine weeks on the road leading up to May 7th. With the exception of a little by-election in Clacton Didn't do too badly, did we?

But I understand and accept that I've been, by my standards, relatively absent from the political scene over the course of the last few months.

Today, I'm back. I'm back on the road, and today is when our general election campaign starts, and I will be out on the road every week, between now and the general election, whether it happens this year or next spring, or in three years' time, we are back out actively campaigning, and fighting. Make no mistake about it.

And Doncaster has been chosen for one very, very good reason. I have said for years, years, and by the way, Richard Tice and I were opposing net Net Zero 10 years ago. We were absolute pariahs for daring to even suggest it.

But I've said for years that the deindustrialisation of Britain is insanity. It's insanity for strategic reasons. It's insanity for economic reasons. And it doesn't make any sense for carbon emissions, for steel plants to close in the northeast of England, manufacture the steel in India and then send it back to us. This is the most incredible self inflicted wound. That has been a narrativw many of you would have heard from me before.

But now... Oh, now? We have Yorkshire MP and Chancellor John Healey. Prime Minister Andy Burnham. saying that they will re-industrialise Britain. But let me tell you why they won't. And let me tell you why they can't. And let me tell you why I've chosen Doncaster to start this campaign.

Manufacturing in Doncaster cannot resurge. Manufacturing Doncaster cannot boom all the while, and these are current prices, our industrial energy price today is over eight times higher than that in the United States of America, and 12 times higher of that in China. That is what we have done to our prospects of manufacturing industry in this country, let alone the price of domestic energy, and if the Labour Party want to fight me, on reindustrialisation well come and do it here in Doncaster, because I'm ready for you.

Now there is, of course, a very well known Doncaster Member of Parliament. Ed Miliband. Although I was told this morning, he's known locally as Ed Moribund because he's never seen in the constituency people thought he might be dead.

But he's not. He's much alive and kicking, and determined to carry on with the policy that runs in direct contradiction to what is being said by his leader and by his chancellor. Is he listening? Is Andy Burnham listening? Do any of them understand the state of, frankly, national emergency that we are now in.

Now, without getting, too technical, 30 year UK government bonds known as gilts today, traded at 6% for the first time since 1998. Such is the lack of confidence in the lenders, the international markets, and the ability of this government to get spending under control, that interest rates are rising to the horror of businesses with loans, and the horror of those with mortgages.

We also have, and I have been saying this for months, what is happening in the English Channel is not just costing us billions of pounds a year, is not just totally unfair on everybody, including those who've legally come to the country and gone through the process. It is not just a threat to women and girls, from young men who come into Britain, from cultures that don't even treat women as second class citizens. It is even worse than all of that. It is a national security emergency.

The warnings from Fairford, are perfectly clear. We have allowed cells into our country who wish us great harm. All of this done by the weakness of both Conservative and Labour governments.

We also have an emigration crisis. You thought you misheard me, didn't you? You thought I said immigration crisis? We'll take that for granted. We now have an emigration crisis.

And it isn't just 30% of the richest that have left in the last two years. And by the way, I want as many rich people in Britain, paying tax, spending money, investing in Britain, because if we get rid of the rich people, the average people will have to pay more in taxes. That is just good, plain, common sense.

No the emigration crisis, the immigration crisis is worse. We are now losing hundreds of thousands of 25 to 35 year olds. Many of our brightest and best are heading off to Australia, to America, to the Far East, all over the world. They don't see a future in this country where they can work hard, take risks, try and make money, try and make their lives better.

And as for the immigration crisis, can you believe that this very week, Shabana Mahmood, who came in as the new, tough, Home Secretary. You remember all that? That was gonna crack down on illegal immigration, and much else, now says she will open paths to Afghanistan and to Palestine. And whoever you let in will then be allowed to bring other family members.

We are, we always have been, one of the most generous countries in the world to those in genuine peril. Whether it was Huguenots, or Jewish people, or Ugandan Asians, or in the last few years, those who risk persecution in Hong Kong, or Ukraine, or wherever else it may be, we've always been open hearted. But we cannot let in people from countries that pose a genuin terror threat to us in the world at this moment in time, and I will say no, no, no.

You can't just blame Labour for this. No, no, we learnt this week that a Hamas operative wasn't just given indefinite leave to remain, was given citizenship in this country by the last Conservative government. And that was under Theresa May. Anyone remember Theresa May? No, barely worth remembering I know.

Her special advisor at the time was Nick Timothy. He is now the Shadow Justice Secretary. People are getting promoted in British politics for failing. Promoted in British politics for not doing their job, and none of this will get better.

When we get a Budget, on the 28^th of October, any of you with savings, any of you with pensions, any of you, with properties, any of you with businesses, ought to be deeply fearful for what comes of the 28th of October.

It will be yet another attack on business. Especially small and medium sized enterprises. We will finish up with less investment. We will all finish up paying more tax. Is it any wonder that our brightest and best are leaving our country, and nobody even wants to talk about.

We are skint. Yet our bills keep going up, and people are fearful for their average family budgets. We're in a very, very difficult and tense place.

Now, I haven't come here to be the prophet of doom, but I have come here to be utterly realistic about the way things are. And when we say Britain is broken and Britain needs Reform, it's a phrase that nearly three quarters of the population agree with.

But Andy Burnham, in his big speech this week, the first speech as Prime Minister, since the coup - The Reform enabled coup - where he becomes Prime Minister with just 25,000 votes. He has laid out his plan for where Britain is. He's literally addressed none of the issues that I've just raised, other than to say, we'll cut the debt. It's not true. To cut the debt, you have to eliminate the deficit. There is no chance of that happening under this government.

But he's laid out his priorities. Now, of course, he's styled as the King of the North. But he leads a government that has 24 of them in the cabinet, 24 of them. Not one has ever worked in private business. Not one has ever borrowed money taken risk. Not one has ever met a monthly payroll. We need a government with people with all different backgrounds, but we need a government that treats UK PLC as a business, with a profit and loss sheet, if we don't, we're going to go bust.

So Burnham has addressed none of the real issues, but he set out his plan. Andy Burnham says it'll take him 10 years to turn the country round. We haven't got 10 years. We're in rapid decline, and we all know it. We're in economic decline. We're in social decline, and frankly, we're even in moral decline, which we've forgotten who we are as a country, as a people. And all that underpins us.

In fact, his speech was nothing less than a manifesto for the next general election. It was all what he will do if he wins, the next general election. I think he assumes that he's going to win. Think he assumes he's gonna win the next election.

He tells us. And this is amazing, isn't it? Two years ago, he said, I hope in my lifetime, we rejoin the European Union. But on the 18th of May this year, as he put himself up as the candidate for leave voting, Makerfield Although, Makerfield didn't vote leave by as big a margin as the people here in Doncaster, 70% of Doncaster voted leave. That's because they wanted real change.

On the 18th of May, as he sought to come back to Parliament and become Prime Minister, he said, We will not be rejoining the single market, the customs union, or the European Union. Trust me. I'm a career politician is what he said, Yet within the last 48 hours, he said, we should consider all options on the table.

Well, you can prove what you want with opinion polls. Let me tell you. The Great British public realise it'll mean paying 25 billion pounds a year, when the Great British public realise it'll mean, effectively joining Schengen, and accepting at least, at least, another 200,000 people a year into Britain, and when they realise that any new treaty would ensure we signed up to a commitment to join the Euro, I think he might just be in for a shock.

And it's so contradictory. He says he wants to unite the country. A second referendum will divide the country bitterly in a way perhaps we've never seen before. And he says he wants devolution. He wants power, passed down, as near as possible to everybody. that somehow, by doing that, we all become better off and richer. What he wants to do here is transfer all law making power, potentially up to Brussels.

If Andy Burnham, the King of the North, wants a fight, in Doncaster, and the Red Wall with me, on rejoining the European Union, then bring it on, I say.

He might just have given me the biggest boost in my career I've ever, ever had. Thank you, Andy. If you're watching. Tell you what, I bet they are watching in Downing Street. I tell you that, they will be watching in Downing Street.

And also, he wants to abolish the triple lock. If we abolish the triple lock, suddenly, huge amounts of money will be there for a national care service. A national care service that will not pay board and rent, a national care service that will deliver far less than initially, we thought, and a national care service, set up and administered by government, that is overseeing HS2 and can't give us a third runway at Heathrow till 2039.

I don't trust government, this government, to do any more than it does. It'll mean higher taxes and less efficiency in my view. But here's the thing about the triple lock. We keep being told there is intergenerational unfairness in Britain. That the old get everything, the young get nothing.

Now, look, I accept that for young people, life is very, very tough, and it is tough. Even getting on the housing ladder is much harder than it was for me and the generation that went before. But please do not be under the myth that Britain's pensioners are having a great time. They're not.

If you compare our pension level to all the surrounding countries in our time zone, only Poland and the Baltic States pay lower pensions than we do. And the French, and the Germans, and the Italians, and the Dutch, pay far more than we do, and yet our cost of living is higher.

And the thing I want to say is this. We are the party of alarm clock, Britain. We are the party of workers. And we are the party of those that have worked, and paid into the system, and now deserve a decent retirement, and we will protect the triple lock.

I would rather cut the foreign aid budget than get rid of a triple lock. I'd rather cut those falsely claiming benefits than cut the triple lock. I'd rather get rid of the billions of pounds a year we spend putting up people who've crossed the Channel illegally, and should never be allowed to stay and get rid of the triple lock.

I don't know when the next election will be, though I've been predicting, since September 2024, that it will come in 2027. I don't believe the Burnham plan of what comes afterwards, with nothing for now, is sustainable. I also believe, as I believed back in '24, and maybe today's markets have proven me right, the exploding government debt will make them think the situation's going to get worse.

We might even have to go back, as Denis Healey did - Chancellors called Healy have a very bad record in this country -Sorry. It's a very serious speech.

Another Healey might need to go back, cap in hand, to the IMF. I still think the election will come next spring. But whether it comes in November, December, next spring, 2028, 2029. The big message out of today is we will be ready, and we'll go out and aim to win i.

But you have to ask, who put us into this mess? Who was it that put Net Zero into law? that rapidly advanced that deindustrialisation that Doncaster and other places are suffering from. Who is it that gave us the highest levels of legal immigration ever seen in the history of our nation, despite being elected in 2019 on a promise to fulfil the wishes of those of us that voted Brexit. Who is it that put up our taxes to the highest level since World War II. Who is it that saw the benefits bill soar out of all control? Who is it? that broke Britain? It is the last Conservative government and for the Boriswave. Of the millions that came, only 20%, came on work permits, leaving us with a potential bill, if they give an indefinite leave to remain, that could cost hundreds of billions of pounds over the decades to come.

I don't believe the Conservatives should ever be forgiven for that level of betrayal.

But now, of course, they are reinventing themselves. They now say the complete opposite on every subject, to what they did over the course of 14 years. Today, we see mass early release of prisoners. Celebrating outside jails having only served the third of their term, Six million population increase under the Tories, only 400 more prison places.

But today? Oh, it's all okay. The next Tory government will build lots more prison places. The next Tory government will get rid of net zero. And the next Tory government, apparently, will get rid of our membership of the ECHR. They are saying these things as career politicians to save their political skins. They are reinventing themselves and trying once again to con the British public. Well, I'll tell you, in the Midlands and the North of England and the Red Wall, it won't wash. They will not be forgiven.

And I want to stand here today and tell you that Reform is different. Oh, no, we're not perfect. But we're different. And that I am different.

I'm not doing this to climb the greasy pole. I'm not doing this for rank or title position. I'm not doing this to be called Prime Minister. I am not doing this for a knighthood or a peerage. Frankly, I couldn't give a damn about any of those things, any of those titles.

I'm 62, with grown up children and a fourth grandkid on the way. My life, actually, ought to be pretty good. I am reasonably healthy, which has nothing to do with the lifestyle of the last 40 years, I can assure you. I've got a few bob in the bank, I've got loads of hobbies, loads of interests, lots of other careers that I could pursue. I'm doing this and taking the heat, because I believe right at this moment in time, I'm the only political leader that has got the courage and the guts to stand up for what is right.

I'm doing this because our country has to be turned around by 180 degrees. We are in inexorable decline. We are sinking to third world status. Do you know one of the commonest things I now get in the street. I love to go and sort of random, you know, walk about high streets, just meet people, get their instinctive reaction. One of the commonest things I get from people is Nigel, save us. Save us. That is how people feel.

And that is why. That is why at our conference, and I'm gonna repeat today, and I'm gonna go on repeating it as I tour the country, until now, and the next general election. I understand that the biggest upset with politics is the feeling that parties tell the electorate, every time there's a general election, they tell the electorate what they think the electorate want to hear, but never actually having within them the genuine desire to carry those policies out. And I want to tell you, that I am not here to do that. I've got other things I can do. I'm gonna tell you that in the first 100 days of a Reform government, and I don't care if the House of Commons gets rid of its recess. I don't care if the House of Commons has to sit 24 hours a day for six days a week. We will. In the first 100 days, stop the boats crossing the English Channel.

And you may have seen the agreement I signed with Jordan Bardella, whose odds on favourite to be the next French Prime Minister just the other week.

We will, and you've heard from Richard already on this. We will end the insanity of net Zero. Get Britain working again, get Britain reindustrialised, begin that process, but within 100 days, cut energy bills by 250 pounds.

And we will in the first 100 days, raise tax thresholds, which had been frozen for years, without which 10 million pensioners.,, Working has to pay more money than being on benefits. That is why thresholds must be raised.

And we will get rid of subsidised, ludicrous, woke university degrees, and replace them with proper apprenticeships.

And I want to say to the British people that we are a party that believes in Britain. We're a part that respects and is proud of British history. We're a party that stands up for our culture, understanding the Judeo Christian roots that underpin everything that we are as a nation and a civilisation.

And we believe we can do a damn sight better than the current lot. And I will never, ever bow down to foreign courts, or do anything that is against our national interest. I will always, always put the national interest first and the interest of British citizens first, second, third, and above absolutely everything else.

I fully understand as you do, as the silent majority do, that politics has failed our country. that we are going down the tubes, that time is running out, that this has to be turned around, that it won't be easy. It will be tough. There'll be many people that try and stop us. Many of it try and maintain the status quo. Many that try and keep their own positions. Burnham keeps talking about the vested interests. The vested interests are those that get the OBEs, the knighthoods, the peerages. Oh, I almost forgot, and the government contracts. They're vested interests.

And if you wonder why we've be getting a bad press over the summer, that's because for the first time in 100 years, a new political party has come along that can upset the apple cart. That can spoil their little game.

We have to stand and fight. We have to turn around this decline. We have to change the whole psychology of this nation. We gotta get people working again. Got to get people working again. And I think our policy of no tax on overtime will get people back to work and earning money and doing well.

You know, I'm really pleased my four kids are grown ups because I had to work blooming hard when they were growing up, to make sure I could give them the best possible life chances that I could. Isn't that what every parent in this country ought to want to do?

And you can forget the nonsense that you'll be told by the Burnhamites and others, about left and right in politics. That is all now out of the window. This is now about common sense. This is now about patriotic instinct. This is now about turning us back into being a normal country.

Normal countries control their borders. Normal countries put the interests of their own people first. Normal countries encourage success. Normal countries teach their children about the history of their nation, and the things that they're proud of, and maybe some that they're less proud of, not a constant, negative diet.

There is nothing right wing in any way about what I'm saying. I'm talking about plain, common, patriotic sense.

But we really haven't got long. Those people that say save us to me on the street are basically saying, this may well be our last chance to turn around this decline before it is terminal. And I would ask all of you in this room, who want to help us, go to the back of the room, volunteer, stand for council. Give us money, give us time. Do whatever you can.

I can't do this on my own. Our frontline team can't do this on thir own. We need to build the biggest, most active people's army, volunteer army, that has ever been seen in British politics before. So stand up and fight for what is right, and what is decent.

And I am pledged to give this everything I've got, and you know what? I've upset the apple cart many times before in British politics. I've done things that people said were literally impossible. Well, the next job is to win the next general election, and that starts today. Thank you.