Nigel Farage addresses Reform UK candidates in Shropshire

Shropshire Star

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage's full speech to candidates from his party at Venue 7 in Shrewsbury ahead of the Shropshire Council elections

Transcript

00:00I'm so humbled by the sheer number of candidates and supporters that have turned up at such

00:15short notice. Do you know something? I'm getting this in every county we go to. The level of

00:22enthusiasm for reform, the desire for something new, the optimism. With the right leadership

00:30we can turn not just the country but equally your county of Shropshire around. And that's

00:36what we're based on. We understand how bad things are in our country but we're optimistic

00:41because we know with the right leadership human beings all react and we can turn things

00:46around. So thank you all for coming at such short notice. And from me, can I just say,

00:53I look back ten months ago to Kier Starmer's victory. He may even now be able to define what a woman

01:03is. How about that?

01:09If you look at what we've built, we've really started in August. So in eight months we've

01:18built over 400 branches around the country. We've managed to vet and put into the field

01:26more candidates in these county elections than either the Labour or Conservative parties.

01:32We're going up in the polls. We're doing remarkably well. And there were two big reasons for being

01:37here with you, albeit for a brief time, but I'm pleased to be here with you. The first

01:42thing I want to do is to say thank you. Thank you to everybody out there, all nearly 225,000

01:49of them who have joined by. But in particular, to those who put their heads up over the parapet

01:59and decided to run as councillors. I know you've got one or two old labs amongst you who have

02:08done it before. But most of you have never stood in an election before. And you've probably

02:14received a bit of a stick out there. Also have a lot of love as well. And many of you will

02:21be elected on May the 1st and then you won't necessarily thank you then. Because county councils,

02:30this one being you, but county councils matter enormously. And there are one or two things

02:36in Shropshire that I think we need to think about. Shropshire council has declared a climate

02:42emergency. There you are. That'll make a big difference, won't it? To the 80 new coal-fired

02:52power stations being built in China this year. They've spent 2 million quid of council taxpayers'

02:59money on that. They've committed to 1.6 million pounds of spending for an extra decarbonisation

03:06project. They spend millions every year on agency workers. Now I understand why for a short-term

03:15crisis you might want agency workers. But a well-run business doesn't rely on expensive agency

03:22workers. A well-run business employs the right men and women to do the job. Talking of which,

03:29council workers now can work from home. No longer from the 2nd of May if we win in Shropshire.

03:37Come your word for your fire. Can I even begin to talk about the North West Relief Road

03:49around Treasury? Projected in 2021 to cost 80 million quid. It's now apparently going to

03:59cost 215 million quid. So there's a strong argument to say that the Conservatives did not

04:06just fail in national government from 2019 in the most dramatic way, with I think some

04:13of the biggest breaches, even betrayals, of promises made to the electorate. But they've

04:20equally failed here in your county. And when I look at the scores on the doors, they're very,

04:27very interesting. So the Conservative vote share in the 2024 general election fell in this county

04:35by 33%. It's as big a fall as the Conservatives had in any county in the country. And this

04:46is Old Shire England. They used to vote for traditional Conservatives like Mr Gill here. When there was

04:54a Conservative Party. But this is Old Shire England. And it turned its back on the Conservatives

05:01in 2024. And do you know something? It will turn its back on them even more dramatically here

05:07on the Conservatives. Who were the big winners in terms of vote share? Well, Reform were the

05:14biggest winner in terms of up at the last general election here with the Lib Dems behind. My

05:20guess is – no, it's not my guess. I can predict with accuracy that the majority of seats in this

05:30upcoming election in ten days' time will be three-way marginals. And some, in the stronger

05:37labour areas, will be four-way marginals. The turnout will be 35-38%, as it's been in the

05:47last sets of Shropshire County elections. So that's my second reason for being here. The

05:53first was to thank you for being brave and put yourself up for election. My second is

05:59to tell you – and maybe you'll tell me in a minute I'm wrong – but what I'm getting

06:04is very little energy from the other parties. Are you seeing Conservative councillors and

06:12campuses out there? No? Well, there you are. The Lib Dems will focus on the bits where they

06:17are doing well. But right across the country, from the tip of Penzance to County Durham, our

06:23candidates are out campaigning hard. Let me promise you, many of these seats in this county

06:30will be won or lost by 100 or 150 votes. It is going to be that tight in three- and four-way

06:36races. And I'm here to encourage you to go out to speak to as many people, to knock on as

06:42many doors, to visit as many pubs as you possibly can. But I promise you, this work in the next

06:52ten days, and all you've got to do is find people that agree with us. It's not hard.

06:57The silent majority in the country do agree with us. It's about meeting a credible candidate,

07:03it's about you incentivising them to vote, and my advice to those of you that are out doing

07:07it. If you meet someone and you say, are you going to vote for me? Yes. You shake their

07:13hand, you look them in the eye, right? They've then made you a personal commitment and promise.

07:19It makes it much harder for them, come May 1st, not to go out and vote for you. And I promise

07:26you, if you go out and do your stuff in the next ten days, you will produce a great, great

07:31result. This is a flying visit, but I look forward to coming back to this fine establishment for the

07:36Victory Party in a few weeks' time.

07:41Let me get some feedback, please, from some of you. How are you minding it? What you're

07:48experiencing? Yes.

07:49Yeah, great, great response in the market stores. Over the last few weeks, people stopped

07:55whispering, we're hurting for you, and are shouting over you.

07:58Are they? Yeah.

07:59What, shouting nice things? Yeah.

08:01When I say, say yes, we're going to vote for you, and I'm actually feeling confident.

08:06So the energy's picking up. Much stronger. Yeah, yeah. It's funny, Easter coming very late

08:12this year, meant the campaign has really taken a bit of time for people to start talking, but

08:18they are now talking about it, certainly. I feel like we've got something for everyone,

08:21like, a lot of the other parties are going to focus on certain demographics, but what I'm

08:25seeing is young people, old people, business owners, working class, men, women. It just

08:30feels like something for everyone. People feel really angry.

08:33Yeah.

08:34Analyzing the data since the general election is really interesting. You've seen that the growth

08:40of our party has been in every age group. We now have more spread of our vote across all

08:47the different age ranges than any of the other parties. And the other thing was, in the general

08:52election, it was 58% male vote, 42% female vote, leading some journalists to ask me whether I had a woman problem.

09:03To the general election, I've been plagued by them the whole of my life. But the growth of the party,

09:11the growth of the party since July the 4th, it's now 50-50 split. Yeah.

09:17Completely equal split of those coming to us, male, female, and as you say, right across the ages,

09:22right across the classes. It's really, really interesting. So.

09:25I'm Stuart from Wimlock, Nigel, and I'm trying to persuade, I've persuaded two Conservatives to vote for reform,

09:32even though Dan Thomas has been there 10 years. Yeah.

09:35I am finding a little bit of nutsy and spitting and throwing the leaflets back, but I don't care.

09:40I've been in the army, so.

09:42They can throw anything at me. I've seen things, and everybody in this room will not have anything to eat.

09:48If I tell you, and I'll show you the pictures, I'll come on in. Not one, one third.

09:52So, I'm going to battle it, and I'm going to win much when not.

09:55Love it.

09:56First, thank you for coming up and joining us today, but secondly, something that has hit with pretty much everyone,

10:05regardless of what they say first when you talk to them, is this promise to audit councils,

10:09and this promise to actually go in and find all the waste.

10:12Because people, as soon as you tell them about £1,000 a day on a pothole consultant,

10:16and still has potholes that are 65% worse than the average in this country.

10:30You're absolutely right.

10:31And really, honestly, when I go around the country, we're the only people really talking about these local issues.

10:40And as you know, I was at JCB's factory two weeks ago. Lord Bamford's got this new Pothole Pro.

10:46You know, whether it's the best thing since sliced bread, I don't know.

10:49But what you find are many of the councils are signed up to five and ten year long term contracts

10:55with providers that are failing. And one of the reasons the auditors need to come in

11:00is to make sure that council taxpayers are getting value for money.

11:05And a couple more. Geoff at the back.

11:08So my main competitor is an independent. He's been there for longer than anyone can remember.

11:14This is the first one ever. My first job is. He's buying posters and putting them everywhere.

11:20He's spending his own money, and he still predicts to lose.

11:25Yeah, I mean, look, you know, one can argue that there is an horrible role for independence in local politics.

11:30But the problem is the impact of national politics on local politics,

11:35whether it's the houses you have to build, because of the rapidly rising population,

11:39whether it's the cost of translation services, because the number of charming young undocumented males

11:44that have crossed the English Channel that will be related to your county.

11:47Yeah, I don't think you can separate the two. I genuinely know.

11:50Right, OK, one more. Let me do that.

11:54Hi, Nigel. I'm Sarah Jane, and this is my daughter Chloe. We're from Ludlow.

11:58Ludlow has three seats. It's a very strong liberal area, but there is a real appetite for change in Ludlow at the moment,

12:05and the liberals are actually having some fights for their seats this time.

12:10They've been sitting for 15 years very constantly, and we are really feeling a sense in Ludlow

12:16of wanting change, excitement, and a lot of mums like me who really want to make a difference for our children.

12:23Thank you very much.

12:24Thank you very much.

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