Nigel Farage visits Doncaster to announce Reform UK mayoral candidate

Doncaster Free Press

Nigel Farage was at Doncaster Racecourse to endorse Alexander Jones as Reform UK's candidate for the May 1 mayoral election.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, that's brilliant. So, yeah, when you're ready. Thank you. Awesome. Nigel, hello.

00:05Hi there. Thank you very much. Welcome to Doncaster. My first question for you,

00:09which I'm hoping will be nice and straightforward, why do you think Doncaster needs Reform UK?

00:13Because it's failing. The city of Doncaster is failing. All the numbers I read out on stage,

00:18the fact that crime in this city is 85% higher than the national average, but even more stunning,

00:24the 2023 poll showing over 50% of people say they're scared to walk in the town centre. And

00:30that's during the day, not at two o'clock in the morning. Now that, you know, that is a level

00:36of societal decline, that somehow someone's got to try and arrest. Then you've got the

00:42economics of it, which are just extraordinary. You know, I mean, this council is over 400 million in

00:48debt, you know, tens of thousands of pounds a day of repayments. It's a badly run business.

00:57And if you look at the way it's set up, you've got a mayor with a board of nine directors,

01:02overseeing council decisions. I mean, actually, the structure is good. Because Doncaster has been

01:08set up as if it's a company. It's just been badly run. So we picked a young guy, he's 30 years old,

01:14but he's been in business. You know, he's got online businesses today, dealing in foreign

01:19exchange, dealing in crypto. So he's very much part of a 21st century economy. And I just think

01:26someone like that, who can take a really objective look at where money is being spent, like, you know,

01:32money spent on cycle lanes that no one uses, or whatever it might be. So that I think,

01:36you know, I think Doncaster reflects much of what's happening in society as a whole.

01:42And I think people want something fresh and something different.

01:44And you've got a full slate of council candidates as well, as well as Alex. I know,

01:47I think Alex was at one point going to be a ward council candidate.

01:50Yes.

01:51I believe, but obviously has put himself forward from there.

01:53Yeah, we've got 55. Well, we did have 55. We're obviously one down now.

01:57We have to find somebody pretty quickly. Yeah. And it's a very energetic group here.

02:01And a very interesting bunch.

02:04Well, what are your kind of realistic expectations here today? Are you expecting to win and take

02:08over? Or are you kind of tampering those expectations?

02:11We are trying to win. And we've got a chance. We are genuinely have a chance. I think a lot

02:17will depend. The Labour vote will fall. Obviously, it's not a very popular government. And we know

02:21that and the local council is not very popular either. So we know the Labour vote's down.

02:25One of the keys will be where do those Conservative voters go?

02:27You don't forget 2019, a Conservative MP was sent from Doncaster.

02:34When those Conservative voters understand this is literally a two horse race.

02:38It's us v Labour. If you want to beat Labour, you come with us. And if that happens, we can win.

02:43And so if Alex becomes mayor, what does that then mean? Because we talked about why Doncaster

02:50needs reform. But why does reform need Doncaster? What happens for the party nationally if Alex

02:55becomes mayor? Well, I mean,

02:56Doncaster is not our only target. We have other targets. I'm off to Lincolnshire this evening to

03:01launch our campaign with Andrew Jenkins there. I was in Hull just the other day. Luke Campbell,

03:08gold medal winner, is running in Hull. So it isn't just Doncaster. But historically,

03:14Doncaster is a 69% Brexit voting seat. So you kind of get that people in Doncaster think about

03:20the world very similarly to the way that I think about the world. I mean, look,

03:25I'll put it to you like this. It's pretty near. It's pretty near the top of our list of targets.

03:29And winning the mayoral race is one thing, obviously, with a directly elected mayor.

03:34It's an interesting system, not very common these days. But on the off chance, I guess,

03:40if I'm putting it to you, you'll be quite confident. But on the chance that

03:44reform don't win as many council seats as maybe you are expecting, would a reform mayor be willing

03:51to work with Conservative councils and Labour councils in his cabinet?

03:54A reform mayor would have to work with whatever a reform mayor gets. But if a reform mayor had

03:58a reform council, it would be easier. Look, local politics is never easy. Whatever you do,

04:02of course it's not. I actually think there are more splits and divisions in local politics than

04:08there are in national politics. Let's see what happens. We've launched the campaign today.

04:12We've got high hopes as a team of people who are going to work very hard over the next few weeks.

04:17There's an audience out there that I think wants to listen.

04:20And my last question on Doncaster, because I have one from one of my old colleagues in Barnsley who

04:24wanted me to do that. And I won't necessarily do that one. I will do it on camera so you can

04:28send over a clip. But a number of the candidates who have announced themselves as previously in

04:32the last few weeks as running for council, Alex was one of them actually, which is why I think

04:36it's quite interesting now I can bring it up. But when they announced on social media they were

04:39running, they said, you know, I'm running because I want to cut immigration. Yeah, I think that's a

04:42direct quote from Alex's post. Yeah, of course. But why should voters trust reform and reform

04:48candidates when it appears they think they can affect Whitehall immigration policy from Doncaster

04:55The impacts of Whitehall immigration policy are felt in Doncaster. £300,000 on translation

05:00services in the last three years. Just think about that. Just in Doncaster. But they can't

05:04change that, can they? No, but actually they can, because you see actually the better reform do in

05:09local government, the more national government is going to think, we better do something,

05:12otherwise they're going to win the next general election. Thank you very much. And my last

05:16question then for my colleagues in Barnsley then. Reform UK had one councillor in Barnsley,

05:21you may have met him before, I think his name is David White. He recently left the party,

05:25I believe. Do you know why he left the party? I think it was reported that he wasn't paying his

05:29council tax. But I don't know if that's exactly right. Regrettably, there was a problem.

05:34Regrettably, there was a problem. It's a shame. I met him many times, liked him, but there was

05:38a problem. And, you know, we're a fresh, we're a fresh political movement, and we can't afford

05:45to have things that tainted. Excellent. Thank you.

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