Nigel Farage sat down with Nick Ferrari for LBC’s Farage On The Record – a biographical interview structured around music choices, described by Ferrari as the programme that Farage was “reportedly barred from” Desert Island Discs. Over the course of the interview, Farage said he wants to be Prime Minister because he believes he is “the only person that’s got sufficient public rapport and the courage to take on the establishment,” said Enoch Powell was “100% right” on Europe, defended Brexit by saying “we’re not living in caves, are we?”, sat between Trump and Musk at Mar-a-Lago the day after the election, and admitted – when asked directly – that he is not seen in the House of Commons enough. The YouTube comments section reached its own conclusion about the interview before it was finished.
The Prime Minister question
Ferrari asked whether Farage wants to be Prime Minister. Farage’s answer was carefully framed as duty rather than ambition: “Not for the sake of the office or the title, because I couldn’t give a damn about that. Never been interested in that. For me, politics is not about what I become in terms of personal status. It’s about what I can do.”
He then made the claim that will define the coverage: “Right now, I believe I’m the only person that’s got sufficient public rapport and the courage to take on the establishment and do what needs to be done.”
His first policies, if elected: eliminate the Human Rights Act, restore border control, and ensure that election results are reflected in governance. “Voting is our safety valve. That’s our way of expressing our opinion without fighting. So I do actually believe getting rid of the Human Rights Act, getting back proper control of our borders, reestablishing trust that the voters get what they actually opt for in an election is the first thing to do.”
The Parliament question
Ferrari asked, directly, whether Farage was seen in the House of Commons enough.
Farage: “Because I’m leading a national political party. I’m the CEO of this organisation. I am building structure departments and I spent nine weeks on the road in the run-up to the local elections this year. Nine weeks on the road. And my voters want me to represent them, but they also want me to win the next general election. And I’m not going to do that sitting in the House of Commons all day.”
As we reported in our Farage attendance piece, Farage has missed 77 consecutive parliamentary votes and is ranked in the bottom 8% of all MPs. He earns almost £100,000 a year. He is, on his own account, not primarily a parliamentarian but a CEO – a framing that sits awkwardly alongside the role of being an MP elected by the people of Clacton to represent them in Parliament.
As we reported in our Tice GB News piece, when Richard Tice suggested Farage could serve as Reform’s defence spokesman, GB News presenter Christopher Hope responded: “He’s meant to be your Prime Minister. That says everything about the seriousness of your party.” The CEO framing Farage offered Ferrari explains how he thinks about the role without quite answering the question of why his Clacton constituents are paying for a constituency MP who primarily runs a national party.
On Enoch Powell
Farage attended Enoch Powell’s speech at Dulwich College as a schoolboy. His assessment of Powell, offered to Ferrari: “Obviously clearly a man of brilliant mind and yet somehow didn’t quite have maybe the common touch as an individual. You could see it.”
On the substance: “I think on Europe he was 100% right. I think if he hadn’t given the 68 speech, we might have had a more rational debate about mass migration than we did.”
The “68 speech” is the Rivers of Blood speech – the address to Birmingham Conservatives in April 1968 in which Powell quoted Virgil’s Aeneid while describing what he believed immigration would do to Britain. He was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet the next day.
Farage’s position – that Powell was right on Europe, and that his racist 1968 speech was primarily a strategic mistake rather than a moral one – is not a new one.
On Brexit – and the caves defence
Asked whether he was ready to accept that Brexit was a failure – with figures of £90 billion lost from the economy and an 8% hit to GDP – Farage said: “No, we’re not living in caves, are we? I mean, that’s what George Osborne told us.”
His more substantive defence: “The tragedy almost exactly 10 years on is the Conservative Party, who’d opposed it all the way through, then belatedly adopted it, won a general election off the back of it, and then steadfastly refused to implement it. And that is a big disappointment. But is it the right thing to have done? I have no doubt.”
As we reported in our Brexit referendum polling piece, 48% of Britons now say Brexit is going worse than they predicted – up from 27% in 2021 – and 48% support a second referendum, including a quarter of those who voted Leave. The cave defence does not engage with those numbers.
Trump, Musk and Mar-a-Lago
Farage described being at Mar-a-Lago on election night and returning the following day to find Trump, having barely slept and just played nine holes of golf, having lunch with Elon Musk. “I sat down between the two of them and I just thought, ‘What on earth am I doing here?'”
Trump’s advice on being in public life: “Have fun doing it.” Farage describes this as “amazing” advice.
On how Trump views Britain: “He’s depressed about it, sad about it. He loves the UK. He’s very much his mother’s son. The Scottish bit in him is very very – he loves Scotland. So many Americans still view us as the mother country and they’re very upset to see the way it’s going.”
The comments section
The YouTube comments section for the interview was not kind to either participant. A selection:
@dewi9333 (361 likes): “Coming up: Nigel Farage gets his tummy tickled by Nick Ferrari.”
@DM-pv8ib (168): “Is this GB News? Where’s the real journalism?”
@jameshart3879 (133): “Come on LBC… put him with O’Brien or Goodall, not a sycophant.”
@pmartin2110 (107): “Ferrari is totally inadequate and an embarrassment to journalism. So it is not surprising that he is the only LBC presenter Farage will agree to do an interview with – so long as it’s pre-recorded, of course.”
@barryhale9364 (98): “So Mr Farage, you want to be PM, but why is that considering you’re so intelligent, handsome and cool… and when can I get a knighthood?”
@TheQuietGuyAtTheBack (44): “Will he explain how many surgeries he’s held in Clacton? Will he explain why the £5 million wasn’t mentioned earlier?”
@craigmitchell6846 (33): “Nigel Farage… 5 million reasons not to vote for him.”
As we reported in our Labour 50 questions piece, Labour published 50 questions about Farage’s undeclared £5 million gift. Ferrari did not ask about it.
You can watch the interview below:
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