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Nigel Farage addresses Reform UK candidates in Shropshire
Shropshire Star
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22/04/2025
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage's full speech to candidates from his party at Venue 7 in Shrewsbury ahead of the Shropshire Council elections
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00:00
I'm so humbled by the sheer number of candidates and supporters that have turned up at such
00:15
short notice. Do you know something? I'm getting this in every county we go to. The level of
00:22
enthusiasm for reform, the desire for something new, the optimism. With the right leadership
00:30
we can turn not just the country but equally your county of Shropshire around. And that's
00:36
what we're based on. We understand how bad things are in our country but we're optimistic
00:41
because we know with the right leadership human beings all react and we can turn things
00:46
around. So thank you all for coming at such short notice. And from me, can I just say,
00:53
I look back ten months ago to Kier Starmer's victory. He may even now be able to define what a woman
01:03
is. How about that?
01:09
If you look at what we've built, we've really started in August. So in eight months we've
01:18
built over 400 branches around the country. We've managed to vet and put into the field
01:26
more candidates in these county elections than either the Labour or Conservative parties.
01:32
We're going up in the polls. We're doing remarkably well. And there were two big reasons for being
01:37
here with you, albeit for a brief time, but I'm pleased to be here with you. The first
01:42
thing I want to do is to say thank you. Thank you to everybody out there, all nearly 225,000
01:49
of them who have joined by. But in particular, to those who put their heads up over the parapet
01:59
and decided to run as councillors. I know you've got one or two old labs amongst you who have
02:08
done it before. But most of you have never stood in an election before. And you've probably
02:14
received a bit of a stick out there. Also have a lot of love as well. And many of you will
02:21
be elected on May the 1st and then you won't necessarily thank you then. Because county councils,
02:30
this one being you, but county councils matter enormously. And there are one or two things
02:36
in Shropshire that I think we need to think about. Shropshire council has declared a climate
02:42
emergency. There you are. That'll make a big difference, won't it? To the 80 new coal-fired
02:52
power stations being built in China this year. They've spent 2 million quid of council taxpayers'
02:59
money on that. They've committed to 1.6 million pounds of spending for an extra decarbonisation
03:06
project. They spend millions every year on agency workers. Now I understand why for a short-term
03:15
crisis you might want agency workers. But a well-run business doesn't rely on expensive agency
03:22
workers. A well-run business employs the right men and women to do the job. Talking of which,
03:29
council workers now can work from home. No longer from the 2nd of May if we win in Shropshire.
03:37
Come your word for your fire. Can I even begin to talk about the North West Relief Road
03:49
around Treasury? Projected in 2021 to cost 80 million quid. It's now apparently going to
03:59
cost 215 million quid. So there's a strong argument to say that the Conservatives did not
04:06
just fail in national government from 2019 in the most dramatic way, with I think some
04:13
of the biggest breaches, even betrayals, of promises made to the electorate. But they've
04:20
equally failed here in your county. And when I look at the scores on the doors, they're very,
04:27
very interesting. So the Conservative vote share in the 2024 general election fell in this county
04:35
by 33%. It's as big a fall as the Conservatives had in any county in the country. And this
04:46
is Old Shire England. They used to vote for traditional Conservatives like Mr Gill here. When there was
04:54
a Conservative Party. But this is Old Shire England. And it turned its back on the Conservatives
05:01
in 2024. And do you know something? It will turn its back on them even more dramatically here
05:07
on the Conservatives. Who were the big winners in terms of vote share? Well, Reform were the
05:14
biggest winner in terms of up at the last general election here with the Lib Dems behind. My
05:20
guess is – no, it's not my guess. I can predict with accuracy that the majority of seats in this
05:30
upcoming election in ten days' time will be three-way marginals. And some, in the stronger
05:37
labour areas, will be four-way marginals. The turnout will be 35-38%, as it's been in the
05:47
last sets of Shropshire County elections. So that's my second reason for being here. The
05:53
first was to thank you for being brave and put yourself up for election. My second is
05:59
to tell you – and maybe you'll tell me in a minute I'm wrong – but what I'm getting
06:04
is very little energy from the other parties. Are you seeing Conservative councillors and
06:12
campuses out there? No? Well, there you are. The Lib Dems will focus on the bits where they
06:17
are doing well. But right across the country, from the tip of Penzance to County Durham, our
06:23
candidates are out campaigning hard. Let me promise you, many of these seats in this county
06:30
will be won or lost by 100 or 150 votes. It is going to be that tight in three- and four-way
06:36
races. And I'm here to encourage you to go out to speak to as many people, to knock on as
06:42
many doors, to visit as many pubs as you possibly can. But I promise you, this work in the next
06:52
ten days, and all you've got to do is find people that agree with us. It's not hard.
06:57
The silent majority in the country do agree with us. It's about meeting a credible candidate,
07:03
it's about you incentivising them to vote, and my advice to those of you that are out doing
07:07
it. If you meet someone and you say, are you going to vote for me? Yes. You shake their
07:13
hand, you look them in the eye, right? They've then made you a personal commitment and promise.
07:19
It makes it much harder for them, come May 1st, not to go out and vote for you. And I promise
07:26
you, if you go out and do your stuff in the next ten days, you will produce a great, great
07:31
result. This is a flying visit, but I look forward to coming back to this fine establishment for the
07:36
Victory Party in a few weeks' time.
07:41
Let me get some feedback, please, from some of you. How are you minding it? What you're
07:48
experiencing? Yes.
07:49
Yeah, great, great response in the market stores. Over the last few weeks, people stopped
07:55
whispering, we're hurting for you, and are shouting over you.
07:58
Are they? Yeah.
07:59
What, shouting nice things? Yeah.
08:01
When I say, say yes, we're going to vote for you, and I'm actually feeling confident.
08:06
So the energy's picking up. Much stronger. Yeah, yeah. It's funny, Easter coming very late
08:12
this year, meant the campaign has really taken a bit of time for people to start talking, but
08:18
they are now talking about it, certainly. I feel like we've got something for everyone,
08:21
like, a lot of the other parties are going to focus on certain demographics, but what I'm
08:25
seeing is young people, old people, business owners, working class, men, women. It just
08:30
feels like something for everyone. People feel really angry.
08:33
Yeah.
08:34
Analyzing the data since the general election is really interesting. You've seen that the growth
08:40
of our party has been in every age group. We now have more spread of our vote across all
08:47
the different age ranges than any of the other parties. And the other thing was, in the general
08:52
election, it was 58% male vote, 42% female vote, leading some journalists to ask me whether I had a woman problem.
09:03
To the general election, I've been plagued by them the whole of my life. But the growth of the party,
09:11
the growth of the party since July the 4th, it's now 50-50 split. Yeah.
09:17
Completely equal split of those coming to us, male, female, and as you say, right across the ages,
09:22
right across the classes. It's really, really interesting. So.
09:25
I'm Stuart from Wimlock, Nigel, and I'm trying to persuade, I've persuaded two Conservatives to vote for reform,
09:32
even though Dan Thomas has been there 10 years. Yeah.
09:35
I am finding a little bit of nutsy and spitting and throwing the leaflets back, but I don't care.
09:40
I've been in the army, so.
09:42
They can throw anything at me. I've seen things, and everybody in this room will not have anything to eat.
09:48
If I tell you, and I'll show you the pictures, I'll come on in. Not one, one third.
09:52
So, I'm going to battle it, and I'm going to win much when not.
09:55
Love it.
09:56
First, thank you for coming up and joining us today, but secondly, something that has hit with pretty much everyone,
10:05
regardless of what they say first when you talk to them, is this promise to audit councils,
10:09
and this promise to actually go in and find all the waste.
10:12
Because people, as soon as you tell them about £1,000 a day on a pothole consultant,
10:16
and still has potholes that are 65% worse than the average in this country.
10:30
You're absolutely right.
10:31
And really, honestly, when I go around the country, we're the only people really talking about these local issues.
10:40
And as you know, I was at JCB's factory two weeks ago. Lord Bamford's got this new Pothole Pro.
10:46
You know, whether it's the best thing since sliced bread, I don't know.
10:49
But what you find are many of the councils are signed up to five and ten year long term contracts
10:55
with providers that are failing. And one of the reasons the auditors need to come in
11:00
is to make sure that council taxpayers are getting value for money.
11:05
And a couple more. Geoff at the back.
11:08
So my main competitor is an independent. He's been there for longer than anyone can remember.
11:14
This is the first one ever. My first job is. He's buying posters and putting them everywhere.
11:20
He's spending his own money, and he still predicts to lose.
11:25
Yeah, I mean, look, you know, one can argue that there is an horrible role for independence in local politics.
11:30
But the problem is the impact of national politics on local politics,
11:35
whether it's the houses you have to build, because of the rapidly rising population,
11:39
whether it's the cost of translation services, because the number of charming young undocumented males
11:44
that have crossed the English Channel that will be related to your county.
11:47
Yeah, I don't think you can separate the two. I genuinely know.
11:50
Right, OK, one more. Let me do that.
11:54
Hi, Nigel. I'm Sarah Jane, and this is my daughter Chloe. We're from Ludlow.
11:58
Ludlow has three seats. It's a very strong liberal area, but there is a real appetite for change in Ludlow at the moment,
12:05
and the liberals are actually having some fights for their seats this time.
12:10
They've been sitting for 15 years very constantly, and we are really feeling a sense in Ludlow
12:16
of wanting change, excitement, and a lot of mums like me who really want to make a difference for our children.
12:23
Thank you very much.
12:24
Thank you very much.
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