On the 23rd of June 2016, the British people voted to leave the European Union.
Well, at 20 minutes to five, we can now say the decision taken in 1975 by this country to join the common market has been reversed by this referendum to leave the EU.
It was the greatest democratic rebellion in modern history. Against the banks, big business, the media, and the entire political establishment, they chose to take back control of their laws, borders, and money.
Dare to dream that the dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom.
Ten years on, while we formally left the EU, the full promise of Brexit was sabotaged by the same elites who never accepted the results. Today, Nigel Farage, the man who led the fight for over two decades, joins me in a special bonus edition of the Reform UK podcast to reflect on that extraordinary victory and expose the betrayals that followed. Nigel, thanks for joining me. It's hard to believe it's now been 10 years since the referendum.
June 23rd, 2016 was our Independence Day. A massive constitutional change. We chose to take back control of our laws, our money, our borders. And it was a truly extraordinary result because corporate Britain, our political parties, the mainstream were very against us leaving. Project Fear was exercised all through the campaign, outrageously, by the Chancellor of the time, George Osborne.
And the British people literally stuck two fingers up to the establishment and voted Brexit by a clear margin. And I remember it very, very well because for me it was at the end of almost a quarter of a century of campaigning for a cause that I was told was hopeless. You know, Nigel, don't become the patron saint of lost causes. But we got there. So yeah, I remember it vividly. I can't quite believe it's ten years. It feels like yesterday.
Well, many people would agree that Brexit was not implemented properly. What do you think went wrong?
The problem with Brexit, I remember the next morning sitting down, and we discussed the fact that delivery of Brexit was being handed back to the very people we'd had to fight to get a referendum in the first place, and that on in the main campaigned for Remain. The establishment were in control of Brexit. Uh Theresa May was Prime Minister within a couple of weeks. She allowed Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, to set the agenda.
And it was downhill from there because basically the May government viewed Brexit as a damage limitation exercise, not as an opportunity. And you also, of course, on the other side, you had a speaker in John Burko doing everything he could to try and get a second referendum voted for in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats, uh, Scottish nationalists plied, and of course the Labour Party, and who was in charge for the Labour Party, and the demand for a second referendum.
Well, of course, it was one Keir Starmer. So half the establishment refused to accept the result, still refused, ten years on, to accept the result. The other half, with the responsibility of carrying it out, well, it took us three and a half years to kick them. Uh, the European elections of 2019, when the Brexit Party emerged and got rid of Mrs. May, there was the opportunity.
Boris becomes Prime Minister, we leave the EU on the 31st of January 2020, and then we don't implement the realistic thoughts and hopes of British people.
Besides the lack of proper implementation, what do you think the advantages of Brexit have been?
Ten years on, are there advantages? Yes, yes, of course. You know, we've shown in foreign policy we can sign trade deals around the world. Couldn't do that as EU members. We've shown leadership over issues like Ukraine, which we couldn't have done under collective responsibility. The vaccine rollout, whatever you think of it, we were in a position far more quickly than the rest of the European Union to roll it out. Trade. Look at trade.
You know, our trade with the world's increased more than the other countries. Even growth. Well, I'm not happy with UK growth, but our growth since Brexit, since that vote, is higher than Italy, Germany, and France. But the realistic expectations of millions of people who turned out to vote, who don't normally vote, which gave us that big turnout, is the immigration numbers would be reversed.
And frankly, the Boris wave, something the Johnson government was completely in charge of, uh, is seen by many of us, myself included, as a total betrayal of the trust that was placed in them.
Well, we were told that all EU laws would be ripped up as part of the process. That didn't happen fully. Do you feel like we've really left?
Constitutionally, we've left. And I don't believe there's a chance of that being reversed. And of course, what the Starmer government was doing, and what the next Prime Minister will probably do, is to align us more closely with the European Union. That job has been made easier for them because the Conservatives didn't take us away. I mean, Kemi Badnock, funny enough, she was the minister who could, at a stroke of a pen, have got rid of vast numbers of European laws, but chose not to do it.
So the fact we hadn't moved away as far as we ought to have done makes it easier for a Labour government to take us back close. But all the while we own the status quo, the levers own the status quo, we can roll all of this back. And yes, it'll mean tough negotiations, and yes, it'll mean some arguments, and yes, it's going to mean some rows, but we have to exercise the freedoms that we've got, and that applies to business regulation and so many other things.
There's still a number of people who want us to rejoin the EU. Do you think that's grown over the last decade?
I think the rejoin the European Union lobby is a remarkably small one, uh, mostly based in central London, and they haven't got a chance of winning. It isn't going to happen. We've left, we're not going back. I'm not even sure they would want us back. And if we did try and go back, it would mean joining the Euro. Massive contributions of up to £20 billion every year. Uh in any public debate, uh, there's no way voters would buy that.
Brexit's all the departure of David Cameron and Theresa May. We're about to see the back of Keir Starmer. It feels like politics has become more fractured since 2016.
So we're about to have our sixth Prime Minister in seven years, our seventh in ten. Uh we used to mock Italy having a new Prime Minister every year. We're now in that position. The truth of what happened is Brexit was an earthquake in British politics. I'd been promising that for some years before. And we're still seeing the aftershocks. Why is Starmer gone?
Well, yes, he wasn't up to the job, but on May the 7th, we wiped the Labour Party out in the Northwest, the North East, Yorkshire, parts of the West Midlands, bits of South Wales. They were all traditional Labour areas, but they were all Brexit voting areas. And so the two-party system just has not survived Brexit. And I think we're seeing the beginnings of a total reorientation of the British political system.
It's not about Brexit as such, it's about the thought processes that led to you either supporting leave or remain. It's totally transformed British politics. At the moment, it looks ungovernable, but it will sort itself out.
What are your thoughts on Starmer's resignation?
Well, a much anticipated resignation this morning from Keir Starmer. He once again showed way wasn't really up to being Prime Minister, you know, 150 times. Had to look down in his notes, albeit he was being barracked. Um he got emotional at the end. Well, I can understand that. If you put your heart and soul into something and it's gone wrong, you're going to feel a bit sad. But he governed way outside of the manifesto pledges they made.
He's about to be replaced by somebody the British public did not vote for. And in the case of Andy Burnham, if it was him, didn't even stand at the last election and therefore will have no mandate. We can't go on like this. The public deserve a general election. The Tories don't want it, Labor don't want it, it seems, but I'm going to campaign for it.
Nigel Farage, thank you very much. This bonus edition of the Reform UK podcast was produced and presented by me, Ray Addison. If you'd like to hear more of Nigel's thoughts on this 10-year anniversary, check out the latest article in his Substack, where he explains why the UK needs a government that will deliver on the freedoms that Brexit gave us. If you'd like to help reforms fight against the establishment, become a member at ReformParty.uk.
And if you'd like to chat with other listeners about the show, you can join the Reform UK podcast community on Facebook. We'll be back with a regular episode on Monday. Goodbye.