Nigel Farage Reform UK Leader in Kettering

Northants Telegraph

Nigel Farage Reform UK Leader in Kettering at rally

Transcript

00:00So thank you for meeting with me today. So one of the last times you were here in 2016 you said

00:04that Northamptonshire was the heart of England so do you think that's still the case visiting today?

00:09Well it's the heart of England geographically but it's also the heart of England politically.

00:13Look what happened last year. A safe Conservative area finished up with more Labour MPs

00:19than Conservative MPs and that reflected what was happening across the country. So as we look ahead

00:26to the 1st of May elections what happens here will be indicative of what happens across the rest of

00:30the country. Partly because of the mix. You've got the towns, you've got the rural bits, you know

00:36there's a bit of everything in this county. It's not a very big county, you've got a bit of

00:40everything. What you've also got here is local government failure, you know, on a level that

00:46is just astonishing. We were told that if you get rid of the old county councils, you go for

00:51unitaries, you get rid of the districts, that it'll be better value for money, everyone's going

00:57to be a winner. Well I've got to tell you four years on it isn't looking like that to us. It's

01:01looking like it's even worse than it was before. So yeah this will be what happens here on the night

01:08of May the 1st with a cap will be indicative of what happens more broadly. And you said today

01:13that Northamptonshire is broken and that's a message we're hearing across the country generally

01:18so what's particularly broken about Northampton compared to anyone else? They're bust. They've completely bust.

01:23The interest, the daily interest payments between the two unitaries are £100,000 a day

01:29and yes they can defend by saying there's less money from central government. They can defend by

01:33saying of course social care with an ageing population is a bigger burden on local government.

01:39And both of those things would be true but you know in life you have to cut your cloth according

01:44to where you are. You've got nearly 40 people in the county being paid by local councils over

01:50£100,000 a year. You've got chief executives earning more than the Prime Minister and not

01:55delivering. And so what we're saying is if we get in there there'll be a doge style department

02:01right for Northamptonshire. We'll cut excess spending and try and get the thing back on an

02:06even track. We'll audit all of the long-term contracts including wire potholes 40% worse in

02:13this county than they are in your next door neighbours. Things like that. This needs a shake

02:18up. One party's been in power for far too long. That's great and also what kind of talking to

02:25people out and about you said that no one's been rude to you today but speaking to people what are

02:30their concerns particularly for Northampton? Well they're worried about council tax because it goes

02:34up five percent every single year. They're worried about local services but equally equally despite

02:40the fact that local elections national issues play as well. You know and you think about it

02:46in this county the population the last census the last census 21 back to 11

02:52showed a population increase in this county of 14 percent all directly as a result of the

02:58Conservative party and Labour before them mass immigration on an open door scale. Housing,

03:05access to GP services, road congestion. These are all national issues that impact on local

03:12government and don't think when people vote that these things won't be relevant because they were.

03:17Thank you and expanding out slightly now I'm interested in the topic of the kind of toxic

03:25manosphere that's been brought up recently in the rise of adolescence being broadcast on Netflix

03:29and reform said last year that you would look at reforming the educational curriculum of the

03:34UK and so considering the role that councils play in education what does reform's plan look like

03:40in reforming that and attitudes to educating it? The education system I'm sorry you know Michael

03:47Gove would tell you as education secretary he improved academic standards maybe he did.

03:52What the Conservatives did not do was stop the march of hard left Marxist woke extremism

03:58going right through the education establishments and so many of our young people from millennials

04:03down have frankly been poisoned at school. Poisoned into thinking and understanding

04:09what our country represents, what it is, what our history is. Poisoned with gender ideology

04:16and so many other things. Be in no doubt at whatever level of government we're at we will

04:20fight that march of the left through the educational establishment and we are absolutely

04:25determined on that. So do you think that this reaction to this TV show and raising the topic

04:30of toxic masculinity within society is? Oh let boys be boys let's grow up you know people got

04:36a football in Germany last year they told don't drink more than two pints and don't sing and

04:39chant. Let's grow up let's let blokes be blokes. Maybe some of the bad behaviour we see from young

04:46men is because we're suppressing them. Thank you and just lastly to finish off you're obviously

04:52contesting all of the 144 seats across Northamptonshire and pretty much the 1600

04:57seats across the UK. Considering the division that you've had within reform just within amongst

05:03five of you now four within the House of Commons how do you plan to keep your party in line at such

05:07a local level? There was no division. Really? There was one person that didn't behave very well but I

05:12took action to protect the party. Out there in the country the arguments around that were very

05:17marginal and at the edges we're very united and you'll see that tonight. So you can assure that

05:21tonight that at a local level you will remain? Oh my goodness me absolutely but like a team.

05:26Great thank you very much. Thank you.

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