What Reform UK has done over the past two years is spark an extraordinary political revolution, because we are prepared to talk about the things that matter.
I am very pleased to say that Colin Sutton, who was Britain’s most famous living detective, was elected as Reform UK’s Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk last week. In the battle over who controls the centre-right vote in this country, in Norfolk we received more votes than the Conservatives and Labour added together.
We are the dominant force in centre-right politics in Britain.
For a hundred years, it was the Liberals versus the Tories. Since the First World War, it has been Labour versus the Conservatives: “We have done our 10 years. Off you go, old chap. It’s your turn.” It was almost like a club.
I am proud of what Reform UK has done. We have built the biggest party in the country by membership. We have more than 2,500 elected councillors and are running 33 local authorities across the country. We managed to raise more money last year than any other political party.
We are genuinely doing everything we can to get ready to fight the next general election, whenever it comes.
I believe we can win it. I believe a historic upset is on the cards. I believe the British people have simply had enough of weak, gutless, spineless leadership that cares more about opinion in the international community than it does about the collective good of the people living in this country.
The big moment of this year was 7th May. The Scottish Parliament was up for election, the Welsh Parliament was up for election and huge numbers of seats across England were being contested in local council elections.
Despite the Labour government, supported by the Conservatives, attempting in some cases for the second year in a row to deny people the right to vote - even though they were paying their council tax - Reform fought legal action against the government and won back the right to vote for five million people.
The results were incredible. We became the opposition in Scotland and Wales from nothing. In East Anglia, across Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, in counties that had been Tory for a couple of hundred years, we wiped out the Conservatives. In the north of England, in areas that Labour had literally dominated since 1918 - places like Sunderland - we wiped out the Labour Party. I knew on 8th May that we had got rid of Keir Starmer, and I felt good about that.
This huge success went against the Westminster narrative, which was: “Do not worry about Reform. They will implode. They will fall to pieces.”
On 8th May, they realised Reform was not going away. They therefore decided that, if they could not beat us by fair means, they would try to beat us by foul means.
I have been in this game long enough to take stick, abuse and criticism. We know that is part of the rough and tumble of being in politics. But the coordinated pile-on - helped, of course, by leaks of confidential banking information from state authorities in this country - and the extent of the untruths that have been written have been extraordinary. Many of my colleagues and I have been not merely criticised, but demonised and dehumanised.
Reform is the first proper alternative that this country has had for 100 years. If you want change, you have to vote for change. If you want change, you have to recognise that Britain is broken. You have to recognise that the patient is very sick.
The Tories say Britain is not broken. Well, they have to say that. Otherwise, they would be admitting that they broke it during their 14 years in power.
Labour says Britain is not broken. Andy Burnham thinks that creating a few mayors here and there will sort it out. It will not.
Whatever the mainstream media try to do - telling us about a “Kemi bounce”, how wonderful Andy is, how ghastly we are or whatever it may be - Reform is more than a political party. It is a movement. It is a state of mind. It is an understanding that something fundamentally has to change. It is a belief that we have to change the direction in which this country is going by 180 degrees.
This is an edited extract from a speech given by Nigel Farage at CPAC on 18th July. Watch the full speech here.
I am very pleased to say that Colin Sutton, who was Britain’s most famous living detective, was elected as Reform UK’s Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk last week. In the battle over who controls the centre-right vote in this country, in Norfolk we received more votes than the Conservatives and Labour added together.
We are the dominant force in centre-right politics in Britain.
For a hundred years, it was the Liberals versus the Tories. Since the First World War, it has been Labour versus the Conservatives: “We have done our 10 years. Off you go, old chap. It’s your turn.” It was almost like a club.
I am proud of what Reform UK has done. We have built the biggest party in the country by membership. We have more than 2,500 elected councillors and are running 33 local authorities across the country. We managed to raise more money last year than any other political party.
We are genuinely doing everything we can to get ready to fight the next general election, whenever it comes.
I believe we can win it. I believe a historic upset is on the cards. I believe the British people have simply had enough of weak, gutless, spineless leadership that cares more about opinion in the international community than it does about the collective good of the people living in this country.
The big moment of this year was 7th May. The Scottish Parliament was up for election, the Welsh Parliament was up for election and huge numbers of seats across England were being contested in local council elections.
Despite the Labour government, supported by the Conservatives, attempting in some cases for the second year in a row to deny people the right to vote - even though they were paying their council tax - Reform fought legal action against the government and won back the right to vote for five million people.
The results were incredible. We became the opposition in Scotland and Wales from nothing. In East Anglia, across Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, in counties that had been Tory for a couple of hundred years, we wiped out the Conservatives. In the north of England, in areas that Labour had literally dominated since 1918 - places like Sunderland - we wiped out the Labour Party. I knew on 8th May that we had got rid of Keir Starmer, and I felt good about that.
This huge success went against the Westminster narrative, which was: “Do not worry about Reform. They will implode. They will fall to pieces.”
On 8th May, they realised Reform was not going away. They therefore decided that, if they could not beat us by fair means, they would try to beat us by foul means.
I have been in this game long enough to take stick, abuse and criticism. We know that is part of the rough and tumble of being in politics. But the coordinated pile-on - helped, of course, by leaks of confidential banking information from state authorities in this country - and the extent of the untruths that have been written have been extraordinary. Many of my colleagues and I have been not merely criticised, but demonised and dehumanised.
Reform is the first proper alternative that this country has had for 100 years. If you want change, you have to vote for change. If you want change, you have to recognise that Britain is broken. You have to recognise that the patient is very sick.
The Tories say Britain is not broken. Well, they have to say that. Otherwise, they would be admitting that they broke it during their 14 years in power.
Labour says Britain is not broken. Andy Burnham thinks that creating a few mayors here and there will sort it out. It will not.
Whatever the mainstream media try to do - telling us about a “Kemi bounce”, how wonderful Andy is, how ghastly we are or whatever it may be - Reform is more than a political party. It is a movement. It is a state of mind. It is an understanding that something fundamentally has to change. It is a belief that we have to change the direction in which this country is going by 180 degrees.
This is an edited extract from a speech given by Nigel Farage at CPAC on 18th July. Watch the full speech here.
