Speaker 1:
If David Cameron is to some extent the official player on behalf of the United Kingdom in the dinners and meetings, Nigel Farage is probably the unofficial leader in that sense, because he was the unofficial leader within a large point of the Brexit campaign. We’ve already heard your speech, or part of it, in parliament this morning. You were almost gratuitously rude to the parliamentarians, and you enjoyed it.
Nigel Farage:
No, look, they were abusing me from the moment I started. Twice the president of the parliament had to cease proceedings and say, “Please listen to Mr. Farage.” Then what I said to them, can we be grownup about this? Can we talk about trade deals? And then they all laughed and giggled. That was when I said to them, “Well of course the trouble with you people is none of you have ever had a proper job,” which wasn’t wrong.
Speaker 1:
But the point is, Mr. Farage, it hardly endears you to the very people who are going to have to give their consent to an agreement in two years time if you are read to them.
Nigel Farage:
Well, they called me all the names under the sun, I just teased them about the fact they’re basically a bunch of bureaucrats who’ve never had a proper job. Look, forget that.
Speaker 1:
You don’t like them?
Nigel Farage:
They don’t like me, it’s mutual.
Speaker 1:
And you haven’t liked them for how many years?
Nigel Farage:
All 17 that I’ve been here. Look, what they’ve tried to do is to build a political union without consent. And I’ve been in there to fight against it. And finally a member state of this union has said we wish to succeed, and they didn’t like it much.
Speaker 1:
So, our viewers in the United States who are watching now and wondering what on earth is going to happen to Britain, how can Britain thrive, I didn’t say survive, I say thrive outside the European Union when the banks have been decimated in the share price, and the threats have been very severe?
Nigel Farage:
Do you know, yesterday …
Speaker 1:
And the pound has fallen 13, 14%.
Nigel Farage:
And the FTSE’s up 3% today, 12% up since its lows in February. Sterling is much marginally lower than it was in February, so can we stop this nonsense about the markets? The pound has been in a better market since July 2014, fact. Now, American viewers, imagine if NAFTA was a political union. Imagine if a court in Mexico could overall anything that congress did. Imagine if you had free movement of people with Mexico, how would you feel? You wouldn’t like it. And what we’re doing in the UK, we’re reasserting our democratic rights, and in terms of business and trade, we’ll go on trading.
Speaker 1:
You are starting to sound in some way, with the similar policies to Donald Trump. Now, he admires the Brexit result, he said it was fantastic, it was brilliant. Do you admire Donald Trump in this US Presidential Election?
Nigel Farage:
Well, Donald Trump dares to talk about things that other people want to brush under the carpet. What Mr. Trump is doing in America is very different from what I’m trying to do in the United Kingdom. My problem in politics is far greater than Donald Trump’s. We literally have lost our sovereignty, lost our borders, lost our ability [crosstalk 00:03:08].
Speaker 1:
He would say the same thing about US borders.
Nigel Farage:
Well, the problem that you’ve got in the US is illegal immigration. Our problem is legal immigration to half a billion people.
Speaker 1:
So, you wouldn’t be looking to him for too much support, because on the one hand he also says if he becomes President of the United States, Barack Obama’s going to the back of the trade queue wouldn’t happen, you’d be at the front of the queue. So, in many ways you must hope he becomes president.
Nigel Farage:
Well, I think for the United Kingdom, I think Trump would be better for us than Barack Obama’s been, of that there’s no doubt.
Speaker 1:
And against Hilary Clinton? Or are you not going to take sides at this early stage?
Nigel Farage:
There’s nothing on Earth could persuade me ever to vote for Hilary Clinton.
Speaker 1:
You sure you don’t want to think about that for a second?
Nigel Farage:
No, absolutely not. I mean she represents the political elite, it’s almost as if she feels she has a divine right to have that job.
Speaker 1:
You keep talking about the political elite, you keep talking about the establishment, sir, you’re part of it. You’ve been here for 17 years.
Nigel Farage:
Yeah, but I came into it from business. I used to trade commodities and currencies. I had a proper job once.
Speaker 1:
So, how on earth do you have the effrontery to criticize Wall Street, the banks. You criticize big business when you were part of those markets.
Nigel Farage:
Well, yeah, but the markets aren’t just dominated by big business. Good markets have small and medium sized competitors trading in them too. And look, the actions of Goldman Sachs in cahoots with this European Commission, getting Greece into the Euro and everything else, we need change.
Speaker 1:
All right, you’ve got your change, you’ve got your referendum. You’ve got to agree that the UK at the moment, the Labour Party has imploded, Jeremy Corbyn has lost the … opposition party that is … has lost the vote of confidence. The prime minister has resigned. You’ve got leadership elections in two parties, this is sending a terrible message about what’s happening in Britain [crosstalk 00:05:08].
Nigel Farage:
It’s a great message.
Speaker 1:
How can you say that, sir?
Nigel Farage:
It’s a great message. Our political class have let us down like a cheap pair of braces, and what we did last week in that referendum was say get thee gone. Political change will be a good healthy constructive thing.
Speaker 1:
How much damage are you prepared to see, because the chancellor now accepts that there will be a recession, he said so on BBC Radio this morning, he accepts that there’s going to be economic damage. How much damage are you prepared to accept before you rebuild the house?
Nigel Farage:
Do you know something? Freedom, independence, democracy, not being a slave for somebody else is something upon which you can’t put a price. And what we did last Thursday is we voted to take back our country, to take back our laws, our courts, our borders, our pride and self respect. And do you know what? Actually I think in trade terms we’re going to do better than we did before. Just last night the Australia and New Zealand prime minister’s said they want to come to the front of the queue for a trade deal with Britain.
Speaker 1:
Now, let’s just look at our European partners, Angela Merkel sounds as if she’s pardon the pun, angling to do a deal, or at least there is a deal. But they won’t allow informal negotiations without Article 50 being invoked. And that’s not going to be invoked, this is the article when the time limit begins. So, when would you like to see it invoked?
Nigel Farage:
I feel now that there is a logic that says that there is a degree of uncertainty as to where we’re going with all of this, and it doesn’t make sense to wait until the autumn. I think what the government needs to do is to put a negotiating team in place, and to declare Article 50, to invoke it, within the next few weeks.
Speaker 1:
Within the next few weeks?
Nigel Farage:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Before the next leader is in place, before the new prime minister?
Nigel Farage:
Yeah, I think you do need to send a message that we’re serious about this. We didn’t play around, we’re honoring the referendum result. Let’s crack on.
Speaker 1:
A couple more questions, do you have a view on the next prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?
Nigel Farage:
As long as he or she is committed to upholding the will of 17.5 million people last Thursday in that referendum, I couldn’t care less who it is. What I don’t want to see is backsliding.
Speaker 1:
Just on this question about the money, you’ve been ousted a million times, you’ve said you would never have made that promise about spending £350 million on the NHS. But, when that promise was being made, Mr. Farage, you weren’t out there saying hang on, this isn’t right, you can’t make this guarantee. Hang on, this is being disingenuous. Hang on, this money needs to be spent elsewhere. You kept quiet.
Nigel Farage:
I kept saying that net, our contribution was £220 million a week, which we could spend on whatever we chose.
Speaker 1:
But you didn’t challenge your fellow Brexiteers on their assertion that it would go to …
Nigel Farage:
No.
Speaker 1:
… should you have done?
Nigel Farage:
Well, that’s my problem, I’m just too soft, too kind, and too easy.
Speaker 1:
There are many words that I would use to describe you, sir, none of those would come within my vocabulary. Finally, if you were in the room tonight, at dinner, you’d probably be on the menu rather than actually sitting at the table, but if you were in the room at dinner, what would you be saying to your fellow European partners over the Chateaubriand? We don’t know what’s on the menu, but …
Nigel Farage:
The wine would be good.
Nigel Farage:
I would just say let’s stop threatening, let’s stop being silly. You need us far more than we need you. Let’s crack on, have a sensible tariff free trade deal, and allow us to be free, to go off and pursue our global ambitions.
Speaker 1:
Nigel Farage, thank you sir. There’s an enormous number of people waiting to talk to you, so I thank you as always for being honest and forthright as always.