Nigel Farage says British culture 'is under threat' from small boat and migration crisis
Mr Farage planted his flat in Labour's heartlands this lunchtime with a rally in County Durham, promising that Reform will be the real opposition.
Nigel Farage delivers campaign speech
Nigel Farage launched a new election push in Labour’s northern heartlands yesterday, as he attempted to move on from the Ukraine-Russia row of the past week.
The Reform UK leader took to County Durham, where in the space of less than 48 hours he managed to attract a throng of 1,000 supporters to a mid-day rally.
Mr Farage planted his flag on solid Labour territory, Mr Farage stormed into Houghton-le-Spring, a seat that has been Labour in one form or another since 1935 and is currently represented by shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson.
Despite polls this week suggesting that the insurgent populist’s momentum has begun to stall, Mr Farage showed no sign of shying away from controversy, warning voters that Britain’s culture “is directly under threat”.
Ramping up his rhetoric about the threat of mass migration, the Reform UK leader argued that the last 25 years' worth of mass migration is “not just dividing and damaging communities, but potentially setting people apart from each other”.
He argued that such an immigration policy is “dangerous”, and articulated a “feeling that perhaps something about our culture is directly under threat”.
“That sense of who we are. Just think about the numbers: when Tony Blair came to power - Sedgefield boy of course it’s all your fault up here it really is! - Tony Blair comes to power and opens the door.
“Bear in mind for the past 50 years, net migration had been 30-50 thousand a year. Tony Blair comes to power and opens the door to net 2.7 million people.
“And the Conservatives accelerated it with 4.5 million coming since they came to power!”
Mr Farage used the rally as a call to arms, telling voters to use the election to not just reject the Conservatives but deal a bloody nose to the Labour Party.
He asked attendees: “Does the Labour Party offer any solutions?”
“In this part of the country, Reform UK is now second to Labour in every single constituency with the Conservatives trailing in third.
“A Conservative vote in the northeast is a vote for Labour. A Conservative vote in the northeast is a wasted vote. We are the challengers!”
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He added that while the Conservatives deserve to lose the election, many voters he speaks to say Sir Keir Starmer won’t stop the boats or mass immigration, will take us closer to the EU and sign Britain up to an EU defence union.
He joked: “Starmer himself can’t even tell you what a woman is! Some people say a woman can have a penis, I’m just not one of them!”
Mr Farage repeated his argument that the election is a foregone conclusion, and Labour has already won it, however he insisted that Reform UK can be the “genuine voice of opposition in the next parliament”.
“Be in no doubt, every single vote for Reform, and every single elected Reform member is going to be the voice of opposition for the next five years and I urge people to vote with your heart and vote for what you believe in.”
Mr Farage’s rally came as he attempted to get his campaign back on the front foot after nearly a week of rows about his position on Russia and Ukraine.
While one MRP poll yesterday predicted Reform UK could win as many as 18 seats, a number of others have suggested the Tories have regained their lead over the insurgent right-wing party as a result of the public controversy.
A BMG Research poll today found that Reform has fallen by 3 points, while JL Partners found the same drop compared to last week.
Mr Farage didn’t shy away from his foreign policy views in light of the damage to Reform UK’s standing, however, tearing into the record of successive governments' wars since Iraq.
He also accused some newspapers of “wilfully misquoting” him over his views on Ukraine, insisting “all I did was to warn”.
“Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, I said on day one of the Iraq War: what is your long-term goal? What is your exit strategy?
“On Libya in 2012 when Cameron decided to go to war against Libya, with the full support of the Labour Party, I was the one saying ‘this is madness, total madness!’”
Mr Farage even claimed that Britain and its Western allies “helped to create ISIS” with its intervention in Libya and wider destabilisation of the Middle East.
