WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Nigel Farage SPEAKS OUT

25:20Francis Foster:How much was it for? Just a million, I believe. Wow. That's pretty good money as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he gave me a gift. A gift. Hey, you know what? It's like winning the lottery. I mean, it's a very serious sum of money. And it's almost a sum of money that has caused the controversy as much as anything else until you start to think through what the implications of having security are. So he gave me this big gift, and I have a legal document. It is unconditional. I can do what I like with it. I can spend it on the horses. I can go and buy a Ferrari. I can do what I like with it. It's an unconditional gift, but on the understanding that I will need, I'm afraid, given the way the world is now, to have protection until the end of my days.

26:17and that there are others close to me that do need now a degree of protection. So it's unconditional gift, but for me, that money is there to look after me until I die. So there is a... And frankly, Anne Woodicom's death is five million quite good reasons. Perhaps in hindsight, for why he gave me that gift. Now, have I broken the law? No. Have I broken tax law? No. Have I fiddled my expenses? No. Have I misused public money? No. By the way, my personal MP expenses for the last two years are zero. I claim nothing. I don't need to. I've got money off the state. What is my crime? What is my sin? Well, my sin is that the rules of procedure or parliamentary standards, which by the way, state explicitly that these rules that cover your conduct in public life, not in your private life, say that any political donations that you've received in the preceding year have to be declared.

27:49Okay? So I get elected on July 4th. And I've got to go in and meet the people you deal with outside income, etc. I mean, within 10 minutes, I'm Terry Mahera. So you're telling me I have to record all my gross income, including VAT, but without the cost of running the company. Yeah, I mean, the commons is not designed for anybody in business. In fact, I'd say to anybody, if you've got a business, forget it. I mean, the whole thing's impossible. So you're declaring all your gross income, not your net income, et cetera. But of course, this issue came up. So what did I do? I went to a top international lawyer and said, look, you tell me what to do.

28:37You tell me what to do. Is this something I should declare or not? His advice to me was, no, this gift is unconditional. It's not political. It's not related to political campaigning. It's not related to building political offices. It's not related to employing staff or political campaigning or any of these things. You do not need to declare it, which is why I didn't declare it. Okay. Then what happens? And frankly, I didn't think I'd ever hear any more about it until the NCA leak it to The Guardian. They publish it. There's a huge furore. So the question is, how will standards find, you know, a committee with four Labour MPs, one Liberal Democrat?

29:29You couldn't make this up, really. And one Conservative. I don't know. The problem is they can make a decision. I mean, I believe if they're objective, they'll say, unusual, a large sum of money, but frankly, within the rules, or they can be subjective and try and make life very difficult.

29:51Francis Foster:The question that will be on people's minds, and I think you're right that the amount is so significant that it's, you know, to the ordinary person who earns 30 grand a year, it's a sum of money that's unimaginable. I get that. is what is this guy buying by giving it to you? That's what people will think. Okay. Nobody can buy me. Nobody can bully me. Nobody can tell me what to say. You want some evidence of that? Elon Musk. All right, Elon Musk, who was holding out offers, potentially, of very large sums of money. Not for me, but for the party. But he asked me to do a series of things, to say a series of things.

30:32Francis Foster:What happened with Elon, by the way? Why did you fall out? Because he wanted me to come out publicly and support Tommy Robinson. And I said, I can't do that. I said, you know, he wanted me to come out and talk about deportations of illegals before we had a plan. You know, when you're beginning, you know, an agitator, you can say, let's deport the world. Right? Great for cliques. If you're a political party, leading the opinion polls for 350 consecutive opinion polls in a row, if you're going to make big statements like this, you need to show you've done some maths, some homework, and thought it through.

31:16Now, we did, in fact, in the end, a few months after the fallout with Musk, publish Operation Restoring Justice, with Zia Yusuf at the head of it, which actually showed what the command structure would be and how this would operate with the aim of deporting up to 600 ,000 people who've entered Britain illegally. But, you know, I could have just done what Elon wanted. Right? I could have just said what he wanted, no problem. Would have taken the money. Everything would have been lovely. But the point I'm making is you can't tell me what to do or say. Christopher, in return, wants nothing from me other than me to be secure and safe and not to have to worry about money.

31:59And I don't now ever have to worry about money as long as I live. I'm not going to be fearful. Can I afford a driver? Well, I'm 84 if I get there. And long left public life. But because of the online world, nothing will die anymore, will it, in terms of stories? Do you know what I mean? Kind of, you know, ex-politicians, ex-footballers, 20 years on, could walk down the street. No one knew who they were. But because of the online world, Those of us that have been seen to be controversial will have to live with that forever. So I'm enormously grateful to him for doing this. It takes such a weight off my mind.

32:35Between 2021 and 2024, I was paying for all my own security during that. I mean, it was costing me a fortune. Now, I had much lower level security because my profile was down, but it's still very, very expensive indeed. And yes, he's made money in crypto. You're absolutely right. And yes, I've been an advocate for crypto since 2019. This isn't going away. It's not going away. I firmly believe it's not going away. The price may be wildly volatile, and it is. But in terms of usage, just go to Miami. Have I got the ATM machine? They're all Bitcoin. It's all Bitcoin's a dollar. So you take out a fraction of a Bitcoin onto your card.

33:23you pay in Starbucks. You pay the hotel bill. You buy a new car. This stuff now actually is having usage around the world. And the worse and worse the banks behave, the worse and worse they behave, the more debanking, whether it's for political reasons or it's for anti-money laundering reasons, goes on, the more attractive Bitcoin becomes as a means of exchange. And you and I want to do a transaction. We can do it together in Bitcoin. You know, we're both big boys. We're grown-ups. So I've long believed in it. And what upsets me is, you know, I come from a long line of people who worked in the city of London, worked in financial markets.

34:04The reason that London always did well wasn't because people wore bowler hats and it looked traditional and wonderful, lovely though all that was. It was a place of innovation. London was always the first with new financial products, with new financial markets. That's why we're world leaders at so many things. And this whole space, this whole space of crypto, of stable coins, the means where money passes in and out of traditional currencies and through into crypto and back, which is, by the way, fast. Don't have the huge charges you have for many other forms of financial transaction. No wonder it's booming.

34:48Back by blockchain. the way that it is, it always seemed to me this was the perfect space for London to become a global centre because there is demand for this stuff all over the world. And as it stands today, we do not have an exchange-traded, regulated crypto product of any kind at all. People think, oh, Nigel's arguing for the Wild West. No, I'm arguing for a regulated crypto market. It's the Wild West now. Now, you can buy Bitcoin or Ethereum, you know, online from a provider that goes out of business. You've got no protection of any kind at all. They're not regulated. I mean, all sorts of terrible scams have happened in this space.

35:40What I'm arguing for is a regulated market. What I'm arguing for is that this is here to stay. It's a big thing of the future. We should be in the vanguard. We should be in the lead. And despite the fact we haven't got these things, already 7 million, 7 million British people have digital assets of some kind. And when I swear to see the government of the Bank of England, well, we disagree with virtually everything. In a very lovely manner. Don't misunderstand me. But we disagreed on Brexit. We disagreed on everything. You know, and he'd said that no individual should be able to hold more than$20 ,000 worth of stable coins, to which I said, well, that means most of my friends will have to leave the country.

36:27I said, you're a dinosaur, Andrew. You're a dinosaur. This is happening. Now, of course, that then gets painted. But I'm lobbying on behalf of a cryptocurrency guy. Well, hang on. whether London has a regulated market or not doesn't affect the price of Ethereum or Bitcoin. He holds this stuff. It doesn't affect the price of it. It just means that more of the transactions in it could be done in London rather than in the Wild West or other financial exchanges around the world. And those that argue that somehow I'm trying to manipulate the process on behalf of my friend, frankly, don't understand how it works.

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38:45Francis Foster:Thanks, Iqualia, for sponsoring the show. I mean, the reality is, though, that this by-election hasn't gone to plan, has it? Because of the fact that the other major political parties are not submitting candidates. It's not a good look, is it? Not for them, no. It's extraordinary. Do you know the Conservative Party in this seat in 2019, just seven years ago, got 31 ,000 votes. 31 ,000 votes. 72 % of the vote. I think it's their second safest seat in the whole of Britain. And you read the newspapers. There's a huge chemi bounce going on. Oh, it's off the charts. She's amazing. Oh, yes, Telegraph, Times, Mail.

39:33I mean, this woman is sweeping the floor with everybody else. The Tories are on their way back to number 10. He's being sarcastic for the Americans. Well, if that was true, they'd fancy their chances here, wouldn't they? Yeah. Because they could publicly take me on. They could raise the questions that you've raised with me in our discussion today. They could prove me wrong or think they could prove me wrong. I don't think they would. And they could win this seat. And then reform would be seriously damaged. So why aren't they standing? Why aren't they standing? Because they know they get wiped.

40:09Despite 30 ,000 votes seven years ago, they know they would not beat me. And that's why they're not standing. And the level of collusion between restore, the Tories, is astonishing. Sort of mirror statements from Kemi and Rupert, though. and Labour, new leader, doesn't want to lead a party that's going to lose its deposit because the Makerfield message is we can beat reform. So, yeah, I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed. It would be more exciting as a contest if there were jeopardy, but it's still a real election. How is it that Josh Simons, volunteering to stand aside in Makerfield, is a legitimate by-election.

40:59And me saying to the people of this constituency, do you think I'm a crook or not, isn't, is extraordinary. And for them not to stand, frankly, I just think they're showing contempt for the electorate. So I'd rather there was jeopardy. I'd rather there was a big challenger. It would be a lot more exciting if there was, but it is what it is. And I will campaign in this by-election to get as big an endorsement as I possibly can. Because the worry is it's, well, the two candidates are you and a joke candidate. Let's be fair about that. It must be, it's not particularly edifying that every time your name gets mentioned in reference to the by-election, the comedy characters then reference at the same time.

41:42Well, that's why they've done it. That's why they've done it. But I think it reflects more on them than it does on me.

41:47Francis Foster:And I was actually, I was looking at, I mean, there's a lot of the commentary talking about it like it's like a, you know, count BIMFACE as a real chance of winning. I mean, I looked at the Calci odds, it's like 90 odd percent. It's not a serious, it's become not a serious thing. What if anybody on 10 % of BIMFACE wants to place some money? I'm quite happy to lay all of it. Or probably illegal, I don't know if I'm saying that. In private. Yeah, it is ridiculous. And I'd also say, I mean, yeah, it does show a level of content. So what they're trying to do by doing this they're trying to make the number of votes I get be as low as possible.

42:26And the problem I've got is on my doorstep. People say, well, Nige, we love you, but you're going to walk it, aren't you? You're going to walk it. So without that jeopardy, it makes it harder for me to get the votes out. I get that. I understand that. I can see their cynicism and why they've done it. But look, all you can do is your best. And by the way, I have stood in the past against the original great screaming Lord Saj. I've stood against the pub landlord and now Binface. So I've got the full, full fluff of these candidates. And by the way, Binface isn't really just a... He's a left-wing BBC comedy writer who's anti-Brexit.

43:07So there's a bit more politics there. Aren't they all? Well, BBC certainly. Yeah. Look, I'd rather it wasn't that way. I agree with you. Do you know what I found quite interesting is when I looked at everybody pulling out, I was like, OK, I understand the tactics. When the Greens didn't run, I was like, boys, girls, whatever you want to... Controversial. But I was like, guys, this would be the moment. You could... Because what you could do is you could garner not the pro-Green vote, which, let's be fair, is a small minority, passionate though they may be, you could market it as the anti-Farage vote.

43:45And there's an outside chance you could win or certainly do some damage here. Yeah, and the Greens, too. behaving like the union party. Behaving like the union party. It's quite astonishing. I agree with you. I think if the Greens have put a big run into this, they could have got a big score.

44:03Francis Foster:And Nigel, you mentioned that you'd been leading the polls and have been. Again, I was, like I was saying, I was looking at Calci. I mean, the, the, you guys have been predicted to win the next election. And you've been leading that until about three weeks ago, at which point Labour took over in the Calci as I was looking at. and it's stayed relatively close. It's, I think, 37 versus 34%. What do you attribute that flip to? And do you think that will continue? Well, Starmer going is obviously a plus. I mean, you know, roll out the barrel. Let's have a party. Yeah, people like things that are new.

44:39Andy coming in is new. That was attractive. And, of course, the timing of him coming in and us coming out of the cosh. and the attempts to push Temi and all the rest of it. I'm not overly worried about it. I'm not overly worried about it. I think the fundamental problems that the country faces are not ones that he's going to be able to turn around. And I think his early speeches and statements are just, well, vacuous. Vacuous. As if devolution of itself is going to improve things. It can make things worse, for all I know. and I think the centre of gravity of the parliamentary Labour Party has now gone so far left of what we thought we were getting back in July 24 and I think there is a major financial, fiscal crisis coming I've said it since 2024 I've predicted since 2024 that the election would not go all the way to 29 and just look at the numbers you know, the five year projecting borrowing figures for this government are two years in, out by 80%.

45:53It's just astonishing. I mean, they're going to have to find 120 billion quite quickly. And it would seem they're not willing to cut benefits in any way at all, which means higher taxes. And we've reached the point on taxes where higher taxes mean lower revenues, not higher revenues. You get to that tipping point.

46:15Francis Foster:The Lafica. Yeah, where we're increasing taxes. It just starts to actually go the other way. And so I'm fearful, you know, and it isn't just, it isn't just the non-doms and the wealthy leaving Britain. I mean, the Tories started that. Jeremy Hunt started that. My real worry is the number of young people leaving. Talented, you know, I'm talking sort of late 20s to late 30s, people who perhaps have found their way in life or in their industry. and think, you know what, I want to go on my own, build my own business. Well, I'll tell you what, Australia is much more attractive. America is much more attractive.

46:52There are many parts of the world that are far more attractive right now than staying here. So I see this exodus of talent, which really depresses me. I can't see Burnham reversing any of that either. So I think we're headed for a major, major financial crunch. I don't think it's very far away. So, look, am I worried? You have good times and bad times in policies. We've had a remarkable run. We have had a remarkable run for a couple of years. But there is a baseline of support out there that is still incredibly firm for us, that is not going away. And I think as a party, over the course of this year, we built out with spokeswomen and spokesmen in different areas, new leaders in Scotland and Wales.

47:38I've been doing everything I can to stop it being a one-man band as CEO of an organization with a big budget. Most of my life for the last 18 months has been spent in the office in London, not in Parliament, not out campaigning, but acting as CEO to make sure we're building departments that really work. And I can see that that's actually coming to fruition in many, many ways. And I think our basic, our basic slogan that Britain is broken, Britain needs reform, that hasn't gone away. I still believe that's enormously powerful. And I don't think you can even begin to prescribe the right medicine for the country until you're actually prepared to accept how ill the patient is.

48:25And I think the Conservatives and Labour Party are both in denial over this. They both say Britain isn't broken. We've got our problems. No, no, no. It's fundamentally broken. Nothing works at any level. And I think we're there. We're not going to move from that position. Our job, our job is to fully roll out a program ahead of the next general election that shows how it can be turned around, explains to people that it won't be easy, that gives them the hope and belief that it can be done. that we get that right, we'll win the next election.

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50:17Francis Foster:That's monetary-metals.com slash trigonometry. The concern must be, though, Nigel, is that Andy Burnham is going to come in. He's a better politician than Starmer. He's more charismatic. He sounds better. He wears T-shirts. He wears T-shirts. He likes the stone roses. Who doesn't like the stone roses? But the problem must be, the worry must be, is that he has no mandate to rule. So he comes in, and in many ways, it's in his best interest to trigger a general election immediately, because the more he speaks, the more he's going to piss off certain elements of his party and the country in general.

50:53I mean, he's already come out and said, you know, the way that the Labour Party handled the Gaza situation was bad. Oh, yes, that's right. He's already kowtowing to the Palestinian activists. So, that being the case, isn't it in his interest to trigger a general election ASAP? Yes, you would have thought so. Do you want him to? Interesting, isn't it? Interesting, isn't it? Just before I come back to that. Here we are in Essex because the ruling Conservatives tried to stop the county council elections going ahead for two years in a row. They were only fought this year because of the court action that we at Reform took.

51:31She now doesn't want a general election and won't put up a candidate in the Clackton by-election. It's sort of almost like democracy only applies when it suits us. I agree with you. I think Burnham's best chance would be in the relatively early months. But you know what? If you're a career politician, and he really is a career politician, this has been the whole of his life. He doesn't have other business interests or other careers he could pursue, not from what I can see anyway. You wait your whole life to become prime minister. You gamble it all and risk being a PM for fewer days than Liz Truss.

52:14I just think that's where the human nature bit gets in. You know, rationally, you're right. It sort of almost won't get better than it is. But I don't think you'll do it. I don't think you'll do it. A little like Gordon Brown didn't do it in 2008 and regressive that he didn't. I just cannot see him doing it. I could be wrong, but that's just my feeling.

52:40Francis Foster:Nigel, do you worry about, I mean, we've talked... All these questions are, do I worry? I mean, do I look like somebody who's worrying all the time? Well, I wasn't going to ask you about you, actually, but the state of the country in the sense of what you're talking about, because you talk about the coming financial, the fiscal crisis, which we've had plenty of guests on the show to talk about why that's coming. And I do agree with you, it's inevitable. And we've talked about violent extremism. But what we haven't talked about is that when things are bad economically, extremism in general tends to rise.

53:11Francis Foster:And you see now with the rise of Restore to the right of you, and also on the far left now, fairly extreme voices becoming prominent. And I think it's a testament to the stay of the country. Is that something that, you know, you think about? I'm worried about the rise of extremism. Yes. I'm also acutely worried about societal breakdown. Yeah. I've just, before I came to sit down and see you chaps today, I've just been to a local business. About at half eleven last Friday, five people broke in, started stealing stuff. They were disturbed. They went away. Cops came. Cops left. The five came back.

53:53Take more stuff. The cops then didn't return. Too busy. But these five people were outed on a local Facebook group. So we know the identities of the five of them. they then returned the cash that had been stolen and the police had decided not to charge them I worry about societal breakdown, I worry I was with somebody else this morning who said he was in Bristol at the weekend I saw a bloke in a supermarket with a rucksack filling it up with 40 quid bottles of gin with store detectives saying don't do that, I just call you walk out of the shop I worry about a societal breakdown the lack of sense of community the way that lawlessness is just expanding in the most extraordinary way I worry about that too I genuinely do

54:54Francis Foster:Nigel I want to get a few questions in from our supporters so before we head over to that the last question as you know is always the same what's the one thing we're not talking about that we should be Before Nigel answers the final question at the end of the interview, make sure to head over to our substack. The link is in the description where you'll be able to see this. Would you make amends with Rupert Lowe and work together with the Restore Party? What is Reform's plan to bring back all the talent and capital that have fled the country over the past decade? Please paint us the picture of what it would be like when you're the PM locally, nationally and internationally.

55:28The one thing we're not talking about enough, and I was inspired a bit on this by Francis and the work you did about being a teacher in a London, out of London borough. The one thing we're not talking about enough is the huge numbers of young kids who've got great potential and great talent, be it in academics, be it in sport, be it in whatever feel of life it may be, who find themselves going to state schools in Britain's cities, which frankly, in many areas, barely look like Britain, because of all the different languages that are spoken, and because of the sort of breakdown of civility and law and order and respect, are not fulfilling their potential in life.

56:13And even though this Labour government tries to make it harder for anyone to be privately educated with their VAT bills, the 7 % that go to private schools are now dominating Britain in a way they haven't done for a very, very long time. And so social mobility is going backwards and not forwards. And there was a tragedy going on in education in Britain's cities where people are not fulfilling their potential. And that, for them, and for us as a country, is a disaster.

56:43Francis Foster:There you go, Nigel Farage, endorses Uneducated by Francis Foster, available in all good bookshops, but sales might go down as well up to this, if such a thing is possible. Nigel, thanks for coming back on. It's always great to have you. Head on over to triggerpod.co.uk where Nigel's going to answer a few of your questions. Can you articulate examples of the laws and policies that you want to enact that would both demonstrate that you have compassion for non-native Brits and that your intentions are fair and reasonable?

57:23We'll be right back.