Nigel Farage has said there is every chance of a general election in 2027 and declared he will run on a pledge to “stop the boats” within two weeks of entering No 10.
Speaking at the Reform UK conference in Birmingham, he said the chaos in government and Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister meant the party needed to be ready to fight a contest two years early.
He said Rayner’s actions “scream of entitlement” and the Labour government was even worse than the previous Conservative administration.
With Keir Starmer reshuffling his ministers after Rayner’s resignation, the Reform UK leader laid into the “cabinet of people wholly unqualified to run our country”.
Speaking without an Autocue or script, Farage said Rayner quitting – not just as housing secretary but as elected deputy leader – meant there would be an internal battle in Labour.
He said: “Already they are facing the threat of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana … the left of Labour will rear its voice and we are about to witness a split in Labour, too … I think there is every chance now of a general election happening in 2027 and we must be ready.”
Farage announced that Zia Yusuf, the party’s efficiency chief and former chair, would be its new head of policy.
He said a core policy would be to stop small boats carrying people seeking asylum from crossing the Channel within two weeks of taking office.
‘That was just the beginning’: Reform UK conference arrives in Birmingham – video
“We will stop what is a threat to our national security, what is a danger to girls and women on our streets,” he said. “We will stop the boats and we will detain and deport those who illegally break into our country, doing what nearly every normal country around the rest of the world does. You cannot come here illegally and stay: we will stop the boats within two weeks of winning government.”
Keir Starmer and his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, have both struggled to stop dangerous crossings amid rising public anger on the right about the housing of those seeking asylum in hotels and charities calling for safe and legal routes for refugees.
The Reform leader said he had brought forward his speech by three hours to address the fact that the government was in crisis. He walked on stage to rock music and fireworks, with a break in the middle of his speech for the former Tory cabinet minister Nadine Dorries to talk about her defection.
She said the government was showing it could not manage the economy and that Labour was “fracturing and dividing into two”. Dorries added: “We are in deep trouble and you can’t look at either of the two main political parties up till now to save the country.”
Farage and Dorries were preceded by the former Tory MP and new mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Andrea Jenkyns, who came on stage in a sequined blue jumpsuit bellowing out a pop song she wrote herself called Insomniac. She told the audience that they were like the “insomniacs” alert to the UK’s problems when the rest of the country was “sleepwalking” into decline.
Andrea Jenkyns performs self-written song Insomniac at Reform UK conference – video
Returning to the stage, Farage urged the audience to “make Britain great again” and spoke about a range of policies, in particular culture wars talking points – but did not mention the NHS, housing or transport.
Farage praised the spread of St George’s cross and union flags across lamp-posts, which critics have said are inflaming tensions and making migrants feel unwelcome.
The Reform leader said every flag placed in view was a way of “sticking two fingers up at the establishment” and saying “we have had enough”.
skip past newsletter promotion
Get the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
He also claimed the government was doing everything it could “to crush free speech online”, adding: “We are without a doubt in the most dangerous place the country has been in my lifetime.”
On schools, Farage said he wanted children to be taught trades and services, adding: “We refuse to have our children’s minds poisoned with a twisted interpretation of history.”
He pledged to “scrap ridiculous, harmful, wasteful, net zero policies” and “acknowledge publicly the Judeo-Christian culture and heritage that we have, and that underpins everything that we are.”
Three hecklers were removed from Farage’s closing speech, including one woman carried out in a heavy handed way and left lying on the ground outside the conference centre. Security also tried to prevent journalists from filming and taking pictures of their handling of the episode.
One of the protesters had shouted at Farage that he was not a man of the people. As the woman was carried out, the Reform leader said: “Go easy, she’s clearly got some anger management issues.”
Yusuf told a fringe event at the conference that recent Labour attacks on Farage for being “unpatriotic” were similar to the “Russia-gate controversy” in the US around claims that Trump was effectively an agent of the Kremlin.
“I think those sorts of attacks are going to ramp up,” Yusuf said. “They have kind of realised they can’t beat us on the arguments. They have just given up on their ability to stop the boats.”
Yusuf also said that Tommy Robinson “deserves some credit” for raising the issue of grooming gangs – although he was clear that he would never be allowed to join Reform.
His tone was at odds with Farage’s, who has made clear his rejection of Robinson’s far-right activism and as a result fell out with US billionaire Elon Musk and two former senior Reform figures, Ben Habib and Howard Cox.
A Labour party spokesperson rejected Farage’s criticisms, saying: “Nigel Farage could have used his conference speech to offer more than just anger without answers and to say more than just ‘don’t know’ to the problems facing the country. He didn’t. It was the same old parade of complaints we’ve heard before.
“His answer to the charge that Reform is a one-man band was to unveil one of the faces of failure from the last Tory government, Nadine Dorries. Farage has proven again today that he is incapable of acting in the best interests of Britain.”