This is an edited extract of a speech delivered by Nigel Farage in Plymouth on 20th October, as part of his 100 Days to Save Britain tour.
There are many who will tell you that Reform’s prospects of winning a general election are not as good as they were.
May 8th, the day we learned the results of the elections, was certainly a big day. We didn’t just break through here in Plymouth. We wiped out Labour in the north of England, and we got rid of Keir Starmer as prime minister. We wiped out the Conservatives in East Anglia. We established ourselves in Scotland and in Wales.
Ever since May the 8th, we’ve been under constant attack and constant assault. It simply never, ever ends.
Of course, in any political party - or any group of human beings - there’ll be some who say unpleasant things. There will be some who say silly things. But the sheer level of disproportionality is something I want to draw attention to.
What about Mr Bonehill-Paine, who was going to be a candidate in Somerset next year for the Conservatives? He served a prison sentence for neo-Nazi offences. When it was found out, he then got promoted by Kemi Badenoch to be an adviser to the party.
What about David Graham, the Labour councillor from Fife? He didn’t just say bad things. He sexually abused a 15-year-old girl, whom he groomed and abused over the course of six months. Have you heard that on the BBC News? No, and you won’t.
Frankly, the list goes on as long as your arm: of assault, of criminality, of paedophilia, of sexual abuse.
Wherever you get thousands of people who congregate together, you will get some bad eggs. Do not buy into the media narrative that somehow there’s something uniquely awful about people in Reform. It just isn’t true.
But I’ll tell you what is true. For over 100 years, either Labour or the Conservatives have led governments. That’s the duopoly of British politics. Or should I say, the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of British politics?
It’s not only who’s in government, but also the whole ecosystem that goes around it. It’s the media, where they get their contacts and connections. It’s who becomes head of the quango. It’s who gets the knighthood. It’s who gets the OBE.
There is a desperate effort by almost the entirety of the British establishment to make sure that normal service of two-party politics is resumed. That means more continued failure. It means more continued decline.
You, as my proud people’s army, and I, as leader of Reform UK, are having none of it. We’re going to fight for what is right. We’re going to fight for the proud history and heritage of this city and our country. We’re going to fight for the rights of British people and British national interests above those of any international court or outside opinion.
Just as we’ve stunned everybody over the course of the last two years, we will go on doing so, undimmed and utterly determined.
We’re here because we believe in the nation. We’re here because we want radical reform of every sector, and we will go on.
We’ll do our damnedest to win that next election and start to turn this country around. It needs it desperately.
Watch the full speech here.
There are many who will tell you that Reform’s prospects of winning a general election are not as good as they were.
May 8th, the day we learned the results of the elections, was certainly a big day. We didn’t just break through here in Plymouth. We wiped out Labour in the north of England, and we got rid of Keir Starmer as prime minister. We wiped out the Conservatives in East Anglia. We established ourselves in Scotland and in Wales.
Ever since May the 8th, we’ve been under constant attack and constant assault. It simply never, ever ends.
Of course, in any political party - or any group of human beings - there’ll be some who say unpleasant things. There will be some who say silly things. But the sheer level of disproportionality is something I want to draw attention to.
What about Mr Bonehill-Paine, who was going to be a candidate in Somerset next year for the Conservatives? He served a prison sentence for neo-Nazi offences. When it was found out, he then got promoted by Kemi Badenoch to be an adviser to the party.
What about David Graham, the Labour councillor from Fife? He didn’t just say bad things. He sexually abused a 15-year-old girl, whom he groomed and abused over the course of six months. Have you heard that on the BBC News? No, and you won’t.
Frankly, the list goes on as long as your arm: of assault, of criminality, of paedophilia, of sexual abuse.
Wherever you get thousands of people who congregate together, you will get some bad eggs. Do not buy into the media narrative that somehow there’s something uniquely awful about people in Reform. It just isn’t true.
But I’ll tell you what is true. For over 100 years, either Labour or the Conservatives have led governments. That’s the duopoly of British politics. Or should I say, the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of British politics?
It’s not only who’s in government, but also the whole ecosystem that goes around it. It’s the media, where they get their contacts and connections. It’s who becomes head of the quango. It’s who gets the knighthood. It’s who gets the OBE.
There is a desperate effort by almost the entirety of the British establishment to make sure that normal service of two-party politics is resumed. That means more continued failure. It means more continued decline.
You, as my proud people’s army, and I, as leader of Reform UK, are having none of it. We’re going to fight for what is right. We’re going to fight for the proud history and heritage of this city and our country. We’re going to fight for the rights of British people and British national interests above those of any international court or outside opinion.
Just as we’ve stunned everybody over the course of the last two years, we will go on doing so, undimmed and utterly determined.
We’re here because we believe in the nation. We’re here because we want radical reform of every sector, and we will go on.
We’ll do our damnedest to win that next election and start to turn this country around. It needs it desperately.
Watch the full speech here.
